Milk cooling centres for dairy farmers

by Mohammed NAALIR

The Livestock Development Ministry has set up two milk refrigeration centres in Marankarthi in Vakarai and Morawewa in Trincomalee at a cost of Rs. 145 million to uplift the living standards of dairy farmers in these areas.

Meanwhile the Ministry has implemented several accelerated development projects in the Eastern province to uplift the living standards of the resettled people.Accordingly there is a capacity to store 2,500 litres of milk in Morawewa refrigeration centre and 2,000 litres in the Vakarai Centre daily.Both centres were ceremonially opened by Livestock Development Minister C.B. Ratnayake at a series of ceremonies held at Vakarai and Morawewa.

The Ministry has initiated a program to handover the stray cattle to their owners.Nearly 400 dairy farmers in these areas will benefit through both refrigeration centres and have also obtained an opportunity to market their dairy products at the highest price close to their farms, according to the Ministry sources.Canadian based World Concern Institute and Milco have granted financial assistance to the project.

The Ministry intends to attract these farmers to the national dairy production grid providing essential infrastructure facilities.