Sri Lanka building up a nutritious young generation thanks to local dairy industry

Sri Lanka actively pushing for a nutritious young generation – Government Official News Portal

Colombo: A national program in Sri Lanka to provide a packet of liquid milk to around 600,000 primary students is well underway.

The program, under President Maithripala Sirisena’s concept of creating a ‘Nutritious young generation of a nation bountiful with milk,’ is coupled with a plan to make Sri Lanka self-sufficient in liquid milk by providing incentives to dairy farmers and strengthening the local dairy industry.

The “Kiren Sapiri Dayak” was launched last month under the patronage of President Sirisena in cooperation with the ministries of education, health and the Livestock Department and several other public and private stakeholders, the Government Official News Portal said.

The Cabinet had approved a document presented by the president that allocated Rs. 1,000 million to initiate the program.

More than half a million o the 1.7 million schoolchildren in Grades 1 to 5, will receive a sachet of milk each on every school day.

Under this Private Public Partnership (PPP) program, small and middle level entrepreneurs in villages will be able to set up milk production units at village level with the support of the private sector.

The school milk program is to be augmented by the Grama Shakthi village empowerment program to provide 15,000 cattle to 7,500 villagers to ensure continuous milk supply.

Private sector companies that will produce the sachets will enter into buy-back agreements with the Grama Shakthi village units.

The Grama Shakthi People’s movement aims at empowering people by initiating joint ventures between the village committees and private sector companies. Initially, the government will provide funds to the village committees for technological support and buyback arrangements with the private sector. Once the project is launched, the Government will not intervene, and it will be entirely for the village committees to carry out the project and reap the benefit.

Milk production is expected to increase with the additional demand for milk.  The current production is around one third of the requirement and the balance is met with imported milk powder. More than 100,000 metric tons of powdered milk is imported annually at a cost of over $ 380 million, the Portal said.