Quality embryos to step up milk production

By Lalin Fernandopulle

The Ministry of Livestock and Infrastructure Development and the National Livestock Development Board (NLDB) will increase milk production in the country by importing quality embryos for transplanting.

The plan to import quality embryos from Australia was disclosed at a workshop on 'Milk production improvement through embryo transplanting' organised by the NLDB and the Strategic Enterprise Management Agency (SEMA) in Colombo on Friday.

Livestock and Infrastructure Development Minister, C. B. Ratnayake said the application of the ebbryo technology would help to yield a better harvest and avoid the country spending over Rs.12.5 billion annually to import milk products. The country spends around 12.5 billion annually to import nearly 60,000 mt of milk powder which could be produced locally through high yielding milch cows.

At present Sri Lanka has a daily collection of 300,000 litres of milk from about 450,000 milch cows and 0.35 million buffaloes. The country;s requirement of fresh milk is about two million litres per day.

The fresh milk production in Sri Lanka per cow per day is 2-4 litres. To meet the country's requirement s there needs to be around 10-20 litres per cow per day. A high yielding cow in Australia produces nearly 50-80 litres per day.

The embryo transplant involves fertilizing eggs from high yielding cows in the male semen to produce superior embryos. Minister Ratnayake said the dairy farmers are not recognised and supported adequately and they do not get a fair price for their produce in a market that could sustain their livelihood, the Minister said.

We cannot expect the dairy farmers to increase their production with poor technological facilities. Farmers have to undergo enormous difficulties and this goes unheeded.

Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, University of Colombo Dr. Lalith Gunaruwan said the massive foreign exchange of nearly Rs. 13 billion spent annually in importing costly milk products could be saved by increasing milk production in the country and consuming fresh milk instead of powdered milk.