Day 1: Karnal dairy mela draws a blank

KARNAL: A three-day ‘National Dairy Mela’ began at National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) here on Saturday, but failed to draw crowds on its first day.

As per the information, NDRI was expecting a footfall of about 15,000 farmers with their animals in the three-day event, but on the first day, only 20 farmers showed up, while 70 animals were registered for the fair.

The fair has been organised to attract farmers towards dairy farming in order to double their income. Apart from progressive farmers and people associated with the dairy business from several states of the country, most stalls on the first day wore a deserted look.

A dairy farmer from Nilokheri, Ragubir Singh, said, “We were not aware of competitions and the information was limited to some areas only.”

Another farmer from Yamunanagar,

Kanhaiya Lal, said, “Bringing an animal to the fair is a difficult task. A farmer has to spend ₹2,000-₹5,000 for transportation, but the prize money is not enough to compensate the cost incurred by those who come from other districts.”

Interestingly, officials organising the fair said they have not decided the prize money yet. It will be fixed at the time when the winners’ name will be announced, they added.

BS Meena, who is monitoring the event, said, “This year, we have increased the transportation amount from ₹8 to ₹10 per km, but the amount of the prize money has not been fixed yet.”

On whether any advertisement or awareness campaign was launched to inform farmers about the fair, he said, “We did not disclose it, but farmers associated with NDRI were aware of the event.” He claimed that hundreds of farmers visited the fair, but most of them did not register themselves.