Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay has expressed his agreement to provide the full support of the Indian government to revive the livestock development sector in Sri Lanka, which collapsed last year.
On several occasions, the Indian High Commissioner discussed this matter with Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, and in a discussion chaired by President Ranil Wickremesinghe, he expressed his agreement to provide the support of the Indian government for the development of the livestock sector in this country.
Under this arrangement, Minister Amaraweera represented Sri Lanka in The First Global Conference on International Year of Millet held in New Delhi, from March 16 to 19. There, the Minister inspected the factory of Mother Dairy, a leading milk and milk-related product company in India. The factory uses about five million litres of milk per day for milk and milk products.
To provide fresh cow’s milk to the public in India, they use bicycle-based vans. Also, the company produces more than 300 milk-related products for consumers. This factory even runs the livestock farm to get the milk they need.
Minister Amaraweera said that due to the high technology currently used in Indian livestock farms as well as the lack of cattle that can produce more milk in our country, the Indian government has expressed its agreement to provide high quality cows to Sri Lanka.
Due to the decline of the dairy industry in Sri Lanka last year, the milk and milk products industry decreased by about 19 percent. Especially with the ban on chemical fertilizers in the 2021 Maha season, animal feed production has fallen.
In particular, the country’s annual maize harvest has dropped to 90,000 metric tons in the 2021 Maha season. As a result, there was a shortage of animal feed and the lack of dollars required for importing maize was also affected. But by the end of 2022, 180,000 metric tons of maize was imported into Sri Lanka. Also, 60,000 hectares of maize have been cultivated this Maha season.
Attention has also been paid to run several state-owned animal farms in Sri Lanka on the basis of India–Sri Lanka cooperation.
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