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Sri Lanka to develop dairy industry by increasing availability of good quality feed

Sri Lanka to develop dairy industry by increasing availability of good quality feed

Daily FT: Dairy development is identified as a national priority to increase access to good quality and affordable fresh milk for consumers, expand rural development and income generation, and reduce dependency on imports.
The biggest constraint to increasing milk yields continues to be poor animal nutrition due to the lack of consistent quality feed availability year-round. The Market-Oriented Dairy (MOD) Project, as part of its ongoing efforts to build the capacities of dairy farmers and fodder cultivators to ensure sustainable cultivation practices and increase the availability of good quality feed, conducted a thought leadership seminar on ‘Revitalising Sri Lankan Agriculture to Overcome Present Fertiliser Challenges’.
The seminar offered an opportunity for the officials of the Department of Animal Production and Health (DAPH), Department of Agriculture (DoA), the Mahaweli Development Authority, the National Livestock Development Board (NLDB), academia, and the private sector to share global and local best practices and discuss suitable methods for Sri Lankan agriculture to optimise yields.
Setting the stage for productive discussions, DAPH Director General Dr. Hemali Kothalawala emphasised the need of the hour stating that the majority of the 200,000 dairy farmers in the country lack land to cultivate sufficient quantities of quality pasture and fodder.
She added: “To meet the need, pasture and fodder supply will need to come from the commercial sector, and to grow this sector rapidly, we will work together with the DoA to improve the situation and address fertiliser challenges.”
Also present at the occasion, DoA Director General Dr. Ajantha De Silva agreed that his team is committed to supporting the growth of livestock feed production as the country works through the transformation to a green agriculture transitioning from chemical to eco-friendly fertiliser.
Proposing solutions, MOD consultant on Specialty Plant Nutrition and soil microbiome engineering Dr. Arunkumar Ramasamy presented his experience in using regenerative agriculture as a hybrid model to ease the transition to sustainable agriculture.
Dr. Arunkumar asserted that regenerative agriculture is relevant to dairy farmers to convert to a sustainable model mitigating climatic impact and it is especially interesting to policy makers as it helps retain farm productivity and farm livelihood while improving soil fertility by building soil biology, increasing Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) and assisting in Soil Carbon Sequestration (SCS).

OSL take:

Sri Lanka is currently working towards self sufficiency in dairy milk opening up a host of new business/investment opportunities. These opportunities range from direct as well as indirect ventures. The government of Sri Lanka has also offered many incentives to businesses/investors exploring opportunities in the dairy industry. Given the economic expansion in the country supported by an ongoing development programme and unceasing demand has added to the increase in the increase in business potential in Sri Lanka’s dairy industry.

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Article Code : VBS/AT/22042022/Z_1

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