NDDB, Amul to provide tech support to enhance dairy industry & milk production in Sri Lanka

Colombo: India will provide technical support to Sri Lanka to enhance its dairy industry and milk output, a move aimed at reducing the cash-strapped country's dependence on imported milk products, the Sri Lankan President's Office said on Monday.

Officials of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets milk under the Amul brand, have taken steps to provide necessary technical support for the production of milk in Sri Lanka, the President's Media Division said in a statement.

A preliminary discussion was held on the issue at the Presidential Secretariat on Monday, it said.

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has also appointed a panel consisting of representatives from the public and private sectors to work with the multi-disciplinary team of the NDDB to prepare a short, medium and long-term plan to increase local milk production to reduce the country's dependence on imported milk powder, it said.

During Monday's meeting, plans were discussed about doubling local milk production by implementing short and medium-term plans and making Sri Lanka self-sufficient in milk in the long run through a targeted programme, it said.

Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Nimal Samaranayake, Chairman of the National Dairy Development Board, Professor H.W. Cyril and other committee members and officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and line agencies, Indian National Dairy Development Board Senior General Manager Rajesh Onkarnath Gupta, General Manager Sunil Shivprasad Sinha, Senior Manager Rajesh Kumar Sharma and other representatives participated in the discussions, it said.

The move by the Sri Lankan government is also aimed at providing food security at a time when the country has reported a surge in the cases of malnutrition among children.

Earlier this month, Dr Chitramali de Silva, the bureau director of the health ministry's family health bureau, said that severe acute malnutrition among children had increased to 1.4 per cent this year up from 1.1 per cent.