Lanka to be self-sufficient in milk, allied products:

Govt to develop dairy farming

by L. S. Ananda WEDAARACHCHI

The Government will develop dairy farming to make Sri Lanka self-sufficient in milk and allied products.

The use of imported milk powder will be discouraged as a policy matter, said Information and Media Minister Lakshman Abeywardene.

The project, “A Glass of Milk to Every Student” will be launched soon to check malnutrition among schoolchildren and assure a fair price to dairy farmers’ produce, the minister said.

MILCO Chairman Sunil Wickramasingha said that they buy fresh liquid milk from milk farmers through milk farmer societies. He said that MILCO factories have the capacity to purchase over 300,000 litres of fresh milk daily.

Liquid milk production increased sharply due to the dairy development program implemented by the Ministry of Livestook Development thereby increasing the liquid milk price. MILCO has also increased its machine capacity for the increased inflow of fresh milk, he said. The chairman said that fresh milk supplies had increased from 25,000 litres to 45,000 litres in the Eastern Province during the past few months.

The focus of MILCO is to popularise liquid milk among consumers and reduce the import of milk powder, the chairman said.