Sakiba Akter Labonno, BAU

Milk is nature's best food. Milk is called a balanced food as all the nutrients required by the body are present in milk in a balanced manner. Lactose present in milk helps human brain and nerve cells to grow. Milk plays a role in body composition, strong bones and disease prevention. 90 percent of a child's brain grows within 5-7 years after birth. Therefore, the need for milk is the most at this time.

It was stated at a press conference by the Member Secretary of Celebration Xommittee and Department of Dairy Science of Bangladesh Agricultural University said these things prof. Dr. Mohammad Ashiqul Islam.

The conference was organised for the occasion of World Milk Day-2023 celebration. It was held in the meeting room of the university proctor's office around 1 pm on Wednesday.

Dr. Ashiqul Islam said that 13.3 million metric tons of milk is produced in Bangladesh every year. So, the daily availability of milk per capita in average is 208.70 ml. Where as the availability of milk per capita in the neighboring country India is 427 ml. and 515 ml. in Pakistan.

But according to the World Health Organization(WHO), an adult needs 250 ml milk for per day. Accordingly, the country requires 15.70 million metric tonnes of milk annually. To meet the shortage of milk, powdered milk worth Tk 2,800 crore has to be imported every year. However, there are doubts about the quality of all imported powdered milk.

He further said that there are several obstacles in our country to produce enough milk. Among these are shortage of good breed dairy cows, scarcity and high price of fodder, marketing problems and lack of habit of regular milking. For this reason, public awareness should be developed by promoting the benefits of milk among people. He also demanded to reduce the price of cow food.

The conference was presided by Dean of the Faculty of Animal Husbandry and the head professor of dairy science department Prof. Dr. Chajeda Akhtar. Mohammad Sohail Rana Siddiqui, Prof. (Retired) Dr. MA Samad Khan, Prof. Dr. Rayhan Habib and associate professor Dr. AKM Masum.

By the conference it was confirimed that, World Dairy Day-2023 will be celebrated on June 1, organized by the Department of Dairy Science of Bangladesh Agricultural University (Bau). This year the theme of the day is‘Dairy as a Source of Nutritious Food and Livelihood With Minimum Environmental Footprints’. On the occasion of the day, there will be given milk among school children, colorful rallies and seminars and discussion meetings will held.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Bangladesh Milk Producers Cooperative Union Limited (MilkVita), Akiz Dairy Limited, Dhaka Ice Cream Industries Ltd, New Zealand Dairy Products Bangladesh Limited, Arla Foods Bangladesh Limited, Arang Dairy, Nestlé Bangladesh, Pran Dairy and Igloo ice cream are collaborating to celebrate the day.