Overcoming challenges of dairy industry

Ishara Mudugamuwa

The development of a natural dairy industry to meet the demand for milk and milk products was one of the strategies of the Mahinda Chinthana policy program of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The effort made towards achieving that object was started about three years ago. Livestock Development Minister R. M.C. B.Ratnayake spoke to the Daily News about the progress made so far. Following are some of the highlights of the interview:

Q: How do you see the efforts of the local dairy farmers in developing a natural dairy industry to meet the present demand for milk and milk products?

A: It is mentioned in the Mahinda Chinthana that the President will take all steps to protect livestock industry and the livestock farmer. Livestock farmer is a silent person who is doing a great service for the development of the country.

He never talks to the media and never asks for anything from the Government.

We imported milk powder at a cost of Rs.19 billion in 2007. Dairy farmer is the one who helps to reduce it.

It is necessary to take every step to introduce new techniques for livestock farmers and ensure a good price for their products.

Some people don’t like to even talk about dairy farmers. But they drink milk and grow up. So first we should change the attitude of the people. If we don’t do that we can never uplift the livestock industry in the country.

We should introduce new techniques and train the young people to engage in the livestock field. Now we have started some projects to carry out this task. We are providing loans for livestock farmers.

Q: With the liberation of the North and East there could be many opportunities to expand the livestock industry. What are the steps taken to use these opportunities?

A: Under the Uthuru Vasanthaya and Nagenahira Navodaya development programs we have started to implement several projects to uplift the living standards of the people who live in Northern and Eastern areas.

We gave animals for rearing and we have established Dairy Farmers Committees in the Eastern Province.

We also opened two new milk chilling centres in the Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts.

These chilling centres will help uplift the living standards of 800 resettled dairy farmer families in the Eastern Province and it is expected to collect 2,500 litres of milk from the Morawewa chilling centre and 2,000 litres from the Vakarai chilling centre and we have plans to increase production.

Q: Could you give details of the development of this sector in other areas too?

A: These days most of the Ministers talk only about the development of the Northern and Eastern provinces.

But it is unfortunate that no one talks about the other districts.

So we can’t develop the whole country by developing only two areas. We should pay attention to the other districts as well.

In my district Nuwara Eliya people live with so many difficulties.

Roads are damaged and other infrastructure facilities are also very weak. Children have to face a lot of difficulties due to the lack of a good education system.

Q: Still there are some challenges faced by local milk production like lowering the price of imported powdered milk. How does it affect local milk products?

A: Some people say the dairy production had gone up because of the Northern and Eastern provincial development. It is true to some extent. But according to statistics village level dairy production has gone up during the past few months. As the prices of imported milk powder increased, people changed over to local milk consumption. At that time there was a great demand for Highland milk.

But after imported milk powder prices came down they forgot everything and again used lower quality imported milk for their consumption. Because of the open economy local milk production came down.

Q: What are the strategies employed to build a strong dairy industry?

A: We are going to establish 10,000 reproduction farms all over the country. We have already planned to train agriculture researchers for production of artificial vaccine as we don’t have enough officers to engage in this field.