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| Sunday, 2 January 2005 |
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One thousand milk farmer villages launched by Deepal Warnakulasuriya The first week of December was special to Milk farmers in the Dikkapitiya villages. The reason was that the Agricultural, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation Ministry selected their village to implement the new government's Dairy Farmer Empowerment Project. These milk farmers are courageous and have open hearts. Although they work from morning till night, they do not have much money to spend. They have families where happiness is overwhelming. Someone from Colombo to see them is a big thing. A minister in their village at least for a while is the biggest event in their life. According to the villages of Dikkapitiya at Welimada in Badulla district, Finance Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama and Agriculture Minister Anura Dissanayake are the first ministers who visited to see their grievances. The Government's plan is to meet 50 per cent of the milk requirements by setting up 1000 milk farmer villages throughout the country. The authorities have selected to proceed with the project in 15 districts - Kurunegala, Kandy, Nuwara-Eliya, Matale, Badulla, Ratnapura, Anuradhapura, Kegalle, Gampaha, Puttalam, Matara, Hambantota, Ampara, Trincomalee and Monaragala. With the success of the pilot project in Kurunegala the official launch of the project took place at Dikkapitiya in Welimada. Project Director Dr. Mathew Fernando said that for the dairy villages project which come under the Farmer Empowerment Project of the Agriculture Ministry, the Treasury has already released Rs. 2.65 million. He said that there were around 200,000 dairy farmers spread throughout the country and almost all were dairying in an isolated manner with their own strength. He further said "The project was launched in association with Milco based on their Farmer Managed Societies to empower the dairy farmers. We have a technical team with 11 veterinary surgeons who are engaging in the social mobilisation of farmers, farmer training on milk collecting and marketing, and undertaking veterinary clinics in the fields". While setting up 50 dairy farm villages in the selected districts, 20 dairy farmers from each selected village will be selected to proceed with the project. According to Dr. Fernando, now selections are over and selected farmers would be facilitated with the collection of milk, re-arranging cattle-courts and several other needs. W.N. Jayasinghe, a beneficiary of the project said that in addition to paddy cultivation, it was the milk production that made their life easy. "We have problems with milk production and selling. Therefore, we too have made numerous requests which no one has heard about. Our sons and daughters do not want to continue with these because they do not want to undergo difficulties", Jayasinghe said. He also said that it was the first time that their grievances were taken into note and measures were taken to address these issues. Under the program, selected farmers have been given equipment to collect and store milk until it is sent to the main store in the area. They have also been provided with financial assistance to buy healthy cows and to provide them necessary requirements. T.M. Heenbanda, a dairy farmer said that what they were paid per bottle of liquid milk was not satisfactory. "We are given only Rs. 16 per bottle. There were several pledges to pay us Rs. 18 but still no change. But, what I believe is that at least we should be paid Rs. 20 per bottle," he said. Agricultural, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake expressing his views over the dairy farmer village program said that he had also planned several other programs. According to him, provisions of breeding animals, meeting shortcomings of support services for animal husbandry activities and recruiting qualified veterinary surgeons to assist dairy farmers should be on the way. He also said that the country could produce 50 per cent of milk requirements of the nation, once the project was completed. "Making the farmer community economically stabilised is one of the giant steps of developing a country. Our aim is to produce at least 50 per cent of our milk requirements within the country and it is not a difficult task. Renewed interest and energy of dairy farmers as a result of our program would make it realise" the Minister added. Concurrently, with the dairy farm project, the Ministry also focused their attention on popularising a culture of fresh milk drinking. The introduction of different milk products to the market and the expansion of the current production of liquid milk had already been begun by Milco. Finance Minister, Dr. Sarath Amunugama who visited the first dairy village at Dikkapitiya said funds needed to renovate and improve the services of Milco factories would be provided soon. He also promised to make necessary arrangements to assist the expansion of liquid milk production at regional level by setting up several liquid milk plants where necessary. According to this, preliminary work has already been finalised to set up a new liquid milk factory in Kurunegala at a cost of Rs. 37 million. |
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