Dairy farming gets a boost

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is providing technical and financial assistance to the Ministry of Livestock and Rural Community Development (MLRCD) to Exploit Productivity in Dairy Cattle in selected districts.

The total project period will be two years starting from Sept. 2014 and the Department of Animal Production and Health (DAPH) will implement technological interventions to make the medium scale dairy farming profitable. This will invariably increase the household income and the nutrition of the families.

The overall goal of this project is to make dairy farming an economically profitable venture exploiting the production potential of the crossbred cattle and buffaloes under a semi-intensive production system and with the specific objective to ensure adequate nutrition of dairy-type crossbred animals reared in confinement to yield 25 percent more milk in the total lactation period.

The project intends to address the following problems encountered by progressive dairy farmers with cross-bred cattle. Appropriate alternatives to feed their cattle where free-range grazing is no more possible due to land constraints;Lack of knowledge in high nutritional demand in critical stages of growth and production in crossbred cattle; and, Lack of knowledge or adequate awareness in appropriate feeding techniques to optimise the use of limited feed resource base.