Sri Lanka to implement three methods including import of cows to be self sufficient in dairy milk
The government of Sri Lanka is reportedly looking at reaching self sufficiency in the dairy milk industry by 2024, according to Sri Lanka’s Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage.
The Minister has told parliament that the government hopes to self-sustain the country with fresh milk while eliminating the need for milk powder.
According to Aluthgamage, even though there are about 1.2 million milking cows in the country only 250,000 are milked and only 4,600 million litres of milk out of the annual national demand of 7,200 million litres are being produced locally.
The Minister has further noted that the government will use three methods in the next four years to cover at least 80-pct of the national demand.
He has stated that the government will seek to increase the average milk produced by a cow to 5 litres from the current average of 3 litres and to provide all the necessary food, water and cattle barns needed for the cows.
“We have allocated Rs 400 million to do that and another Rs 300 million from Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP),” the Minister has reportedly stated.
The government also expects to impregnate about 200,000 cows which are not getting pregnant through Artificial Insemination (AI) by recruiting and training people to do it.
And as the third method the government expects to import 1.5 million milking cows through discussions with large scale dairy companies in the country.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s decision to make the island self sufficient in dairy milk has opened up new business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s dairy milk industry. These opportunities range from capacity building through infrastructure as well as technical expertise.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20210217/Z_8 |