A collaborative approach to drive commercially sustainable farming businesses is needed to help local dairy farmers better respond to the current challenges and lift both the quality and amount of milk they produce, the National Livestock Development Board (NLDB), Chairman Professor H. W. Cyril said.
He was speaking at a seminar under the theme, ‘Dairy: Flourishing farmers to nourishing Sri Lankans’ held at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) recently.
Highlighting common challenges which include lack of farm business knowledge, the rising costs of farming inputs and the limited availability of both land and high-quality cattle, Professor Cyril said these challenges are affecting Sri Lanka’s 300,000 small-scale dairy farmers, which together currently produce around 80 per cent of local milk supply.
“On average, these farms have only three to five cows, and are run as family businesses with limited resources and inadequate farm management knowledge.”
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Dr. Harsha De Silva, speaking at the event said the local dairy industry has huge potential to drive the economy.
“The agricultural sector employs 30 percent of the Sri Lankan workforce, but contributes just 9 percent of the national GDP. This tells us that the productivity of this sector has an immense potential to grow, and as I’ve seen from my recent visit to New Zealand, agriculture and in particular dairy has the potential to be a strong pillar of our economy,” Dr De Silva said.
He added further added that developing the local dairy industry can play a role in closing the local supply and demand gap, and uplift the livelihoods of small to medium farming entrepreneurs. (IH)
0 comments: