Maithripala’s manifesto to address local dairy farmers’ needs
Wednesday, 24 December 2014 00:27
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By Waruni Paranagamage
Common candidate Maithripala Sirisena yesterday asserted that he would take action to support local dairy farmers, a promise which was also laid out in his manifesto.
The manifesto mentions that a guaranteed purchase price paid to dairy farmers for a litre of milk will be raised by Rs. 10 from the present Rs. 60 within the first 100 days of him taking oath as President.
He said the Government has not been able to implement a national plan to aid dairy farmers and the ministry has also not been able to implement grassroots level programs to identify farmer needs.
According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, the total availability of milk and milk products in Sri Lanka is around 900 ml of Liquid Milk Equivalent (domestic production and imports) and per capital availability is 120 ml per day.
Around 320 million litres of fresh milk is produced in the country with an average annual increase of 10%. But 70% of local milk requirements continue to be imported to meet growing market demand.
Sirisena said after his victory that he would introduce a clear program to identify grassroots needs of the dairy farming industry and increase the production of milk to meet local demand.
“New Zealand farmers produce 25 litres of milk from a cow per day. We have to improve manpower, labour skills, logistics and production in the agriculture sector,” Sirisena added.
The 2015 Budget has introduced a special loan scheme at a low interest rate for dairy farmers and increase the guaranteed price of liquid milk to Rs. 60 per litre to increase local milk production. According to the 2013 Central Bank report, total national milk production has increased by 6.8% to 319.8 million litres. But while Government has made efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in milk by 2016 the increasing percentage will not be able to tackle increasing demand.
The climate conditions, necessary manpower, both skilled and unskilled, in many provinces of Sri Lanka are very suitable for farmlands. The development of a commercially viable private sector with investment in modern livestock farming technology is vital to transform the present subsistence level livestock production into commercial livestock production, the report states.
