Additional income by selling milk:

Dairy farming will solve problems on tea estates - Mawbima Lanka Chief

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

The problem in the tea industry can be resolved by introducing dairy farming in the tea estates and fixing the right price for imported milk products, Chairman Mawbima Lanka Foundation, Ariyaseela Wickramanayake told Daily News Business.

He said that increasing the wages of estate workers to meet their demands is not the answer to the problem because the tea industry cannot remain competitive in the international market in the long run by merely increasing wages.

If the plantation sector with the support of the Government can provide cows to estate workers they can get an additional income by selling cow milk.

The Highland Dairy Farm is close to tea estates and arrangements can be made to purchase the milk, he said. Estate workers also can consume fresh cow milk which will be an added advantage.

In the meantime, the prices of imported milk products should include the real cost when the subsidized amount is added it will be higher than existing prices. Then local products will get the right prices and the dairy industry will also grow and the country can save foreign exchange which is spent on imported milk products, he said. This will give an additional income of Rs. 800-1,000 for a family apart from them getting fertilizer from cow-dung.

Wickramanayake said that the Pelwatta Sugar Company invested on 2,000 cows on their pilot project and achieved successful results by producing 20 percent of the local requirement.

The Pelwatte Sugar Company will launch its bottling plant for milk next month. The Kahawatta and Bogawantalawa Plantations are also in the process of implementing this system and the country must support this valuable project, Wickramanayake said.