India to help Sri Lanka transform its dairy sector from import dependency to self-sufficiency

Anand : Shri Meenesh Shah, Chairman & Managing Director, NDDB, Shri Shamalbhai Patel, Chairman, GCMMF Ltd, Shri Jayen Mehta, Managing Director, GCMMF Ltd, Shri Prakash Maheshwari, Executive Director, IDMC Ltd and other officers from NDDB presented an action plan for dairy development in Sri Lanka to Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe, Hon’ble President of Sri Lanka, in the presence of Shri Gopal Baglay, Hon’ble High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka.

The meeting was also attended by Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga, Hon’ble ex-President of Sri Lanka, Mr Mahinda Amaraweera, Hon’ble Sri Lankan Minister of Agriculture; Mr EMSB Ekanayake, Secretary to Hon’ble President of Sri Lanka & other senior officials from Sri Lanka.

After a series of visits and meetings with the concerned officials, Sri Lanka’s dairy development plan is finally taking shape within a Government to Government cooperation framework. The action plan focused on interventions towards productivity enhancement as well as introducing efficiencies in milk procurement, processing and marketing amongst others which includes formation of joint ventures between organisations from India and Sri Lanka.

Chairman, NDDB’s presentation highlighted about both countries having similar geographic condition and smallholder-based milk production system. However, to traverse the journey from deficiency to self-sufficiency, the available resources are to effectively channelised as productive resources with structured and focused interventions. While emphasizing the critical intervention areas, he conveyed that India’s experiences and learnings would be quite helpful to expeditiously implement the projects leading to desired results.

Hon’ble President of Sri Lanka, Shri Ranil Wickremesinghe desired that all processes need to be completed at the earliest so that the benefits of interventions reach both the farmers and consumers and also assured Sri Lankan Govt’s support.

Government of Sri Lanka had collaborated with National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) way back in 1997-2000. Recently, Government of Sri Lanka had again sought assistance from India through NDDB and AMUL to help Sri Lanka achieve its nutritional requirements and improve the livelihoods of smallholder dairy farmers across the country.