June 22, 2010

Sri Lanka to increase dairy production

Sri Lanka is under the President Mahinda Rajapaksa's plans to increase milk production in order to fulfil domestic requirements.

Speaking at a meeting on Monday (June 21) with the authorities of the livestock sector, the president instructed them to encourage dairy farmers to increase milk production by at least 10% to counter the rising cost of imported dairy products.

The president pointed out that every year, billions of rupees are spent on imported dairy products which meets 75% of the consumers' dairy requirements. He urged the livestock authorities to implement a special programme to reduce the dependency on the imports and encourage the public to consume fresh milk.