Making the country self-sufficient in milk

Ariya RUBASINGHE

In the 1950s Sri Lanka imported only 14 percent of its milk requirement and the remaining 86 percent was produced locally. Neglect of this sector, and lack of planned and organized development resulted in a massive decline in the growth of this vital component of the economy forcing the country to be over dependent on imports draining our valuable foreign exchange reserves to fatten the foreign farmers.

While 30 percent of the population is employed in this sector, we spend nearly US $ three billion for import of milk products. Since 2005 a number of steps have been taken to minimize this expenditure with the objective of making the country self-sufficient in milk and milk products in the near future.

Measures taken by the Ministry in this regard include, increasing the population of cows available through artificial insemination with high yielding embryos, import of high quality cows, expanding acreage of grass lands and maize cultivation, increasing production of animal feed, formation of milk producers societies and organizing scattered cattle breeders as associates of these societies, encourage consumption of liquid milk, setting up milk purchasing centres, and encourage production of milk by-products, etc.

It was anticipated to increase the milk production to meet at least 50 percent of Sri Lanka's requirement. However, consequent to the new measures introduced it is expected that the country could be 75 percent self-sufficient in milk by the year 2017. The per capita milk consumption in 2009 was 110 mililitres and it is envisaged to increase this amount to 150 mililitres by 2017.

Milk collection by milk purchasing centres, has also shown a steady increase. In 2008 the quantity of milk collected amounted to 115 million litres and last year this quantity increased to 125 million litres registering a 10 percent increase. The Ministry hopes to maintain annual collection level with an increase of 10 percent each year.

Presently, Sri Lanka has cow population of 1.2 million animals and it is envisaged to increase this number from three-three and half million. The local animals provide only three to five litres of milk per day. It is planned to import 15,000 high quality cows from Australia which provides 40-50 litres of milk per day, compared to presently available local cows which produce only three-five litres a day.

Before it was the practice that families were rearing one or two cows and the Ministry has organized these persons into milk producers societies and provided technical knowledge on various matters related to milk production. Presently there are 720 milk producing villages and by 2012 this number will be increased to 1,000.

The machinery presently available at milk processing factories at Ambewela, Digana, Polonnaruwa and Narahenpita are outdated and the Ministry has made arrangements to modernize these factories by importing modern milk processing machinery from Denmark to the value of 39.1 million Euros.

The Ministry has also taken measures to educate the milk producers about the new technology in breeding practices, feeding methods, etc. In this regard sufficient staff has been recruited. In addition to veterinary surgeons, livestock observation officers are posted to each District Development Council Secretariat area. Arrangements have also been made to recruit 40 Tamil speaking officers to serve in the North and East areas.

The Livestock Ministry has also taken measures encourage industrials and milk produce to engage in the products of milk by-products such as yoghurt,ice cream, cheese and butter. These industrialists and small scale entrepreneurs have been various assistance including technical know-how.

It has been found that chicken and egg producers produce only a limited quantity due to shortage and expensiveness of poultry feed. The Ministry has taken several measures to prevent price hikes in poultry feed and improve this sector.

Presently the country needs about 11,000 metric tons of chicken per month but the supply, however, amount only 75 percent of this requirement. As a measure to help the producers the Ministry has increased the retail price of whole chicken to Rs 350.

The Ministry has also taken measures to establish new hatcheries to increase the day-old chick production. Presently there are 37 hatcheries throughout the island, mainly in the Western, North Western, Central and Southern Provinces.

The writer is Director General, Media Centre for National Development.