Fodder shortage: Owners sell off cattle in Akola

Cattle owners in the district are getting desperate. Faced with severe shortage of fodder, the owners are selling the cattle at throwaway prices. Cattle owners at Akot-Murtijapur tahsil town are rushing towards the cattle market to sell bullocks, buffalos and goats etc.

Sources said the acute shortage has arisen as rains played truant for a large part of the ongoing monsoon. As farmers could not grow crops due to the extended dry spell, fodder production too took a major hit.

At Murtijapur, cattle trader Nasim Khan Mehboob Khan said that the average price of a good quality buffalo , which yields about 10 litres of milk twice a day, is between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000. "However, due to the shortage, the beasts are being sold for as low as Rs 10,000. Due to the fall in prices, even my brokerage has fallen from Rs 700 to 800 per week to just Rs 200 to Rs 300," he lamented.