Impact of COVID-19 on the Recession of Large-scale Dairy Farms of Cox’s Bazar Sadar Upazilla

Abstract

The effect of COVID19 has been very harsh on approximately every sector of our country. Around 0.3 million of dairy farms have experienced the ill fate accompanied with the situation. This survey was conducted to estimate the economic loss of the farmers of Cox’sBazar Sadar Upazilla during the lockdown and analyze the probable causes for the loss. 14 farms within the stated area were selected randomly having more than 10 dairy cattle for the survey amongst 86 registered farms within the area. The data of five years were recorded including the COVID period. The average milk production per day was 1280 in the farms, in 2022 the amount has been decreased to 951 liter per day (table 3). The farmstock has been also decreased from 433 (in 2018) to 95 ( in 2022) (table 4). The study shows the changes in the recurrent cost for concentrate feed, roughage source, medication and labor which might or might not be affected by pandemic situation. The average cost for concentrate source was 205035.282 BDT in the year of 2018, but the cost increased to 222089.74 taka in the year 2020 and the cost is 323766.9 taka at present. Changes in the medication cost was 25.75 % increase in the year 2020 while it decreased 10.38% in 2021. Labor cost increased above 18% in the year of 2020 due to unavailability of manpower. This study also presents the causes behind poor marketing of local farms and causes behind unsold milk, the need of versatile dairy products generation and properly trained personnel in farms for that.