By Murari Adhikari, Dhading, Nov. 8: Tripurasundari and Khaniyabas Rural Municipalities of Dhading have started a maternity allowance programme for cattle.

Chairman of Tripurasundari Rural Municipality Sambhu Kumar Thapa said that the allowance programme had been introduced to promote animal husbandry and increase milk production in the local levels. “Not many people in the villages keep cattle these days. Especially the buffaloes are disappearing because people send them off for meat after they stop giving milk,” Thapa said, adding, “So, this programme was started to get more people interested in cattle rearing.”

Thapa informed that the Rural Municipality would provide Rs. 1,500 for the maternity of a cow and Rs. 3,000 for a buffalo. In order to claim the allowance, farmers have to submit an application along with a photograph of the animal with her newborn calf, insurance documents, a recommendation from the ward office and contact number of their neighbour to the Rural Municipality.

Thapa also said that the federal government and the state government had already provided resources for the buffalo promotion programme and that the data collection process was underway.

The local farmers are also extremely happy about the new allowance scheme. Satta Tamang, a farmer in Khaniyabas, said that the allowance had served to attract him and other farmers like him towards buffalo rearing. Khaniyabas Rural Municipality has been providing cattle maternity allowance since last fiscal year, said the Rural Municipality chair Rana Bahadur Tamang.