Officials from 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 technical assistance for milk production in Sri Lanka, according to a statement from the President's Media Division. According to the statement, the Presidential Secretariat held a preliminary discussion on the issue on Monday.
India will provide technical assistance to Sri Lanka to improve its dairy industry and milk output, reducing its reliance on imported milk products. On Monday, the Sri Lankan President's Office announced that India would provide technical assistance to Sri Lanka to improve its dairy industry and milk output, reducing its reliance on imported milk products.
Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has also appointed a panel of representatives from the public and private sectors to collaborate with the NDDB's multidisciplinary team to develop a short, medium, and long-term plan to increase local milk production and reduce the country's reliance on imported milk powder, according to the statement.
Plans were discussed during Monday's meeting 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, according to the statement.
Dr. Nimal Samaranayake attended the discussions, Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Professor H.W. Cyril, Chairman of the National Dairy Development Board, and other committee members and officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and line agencies, as well as Indian National Dairy Development Board Senior General Manager Rajesh Onkarnath Gupta, General Manager Sunil Shivprasad Sinha, Senior Manager Rajesh Kumar Sharma, and other representatives.
The move by the Sri Lankan government also aims to provide food security when the country has seen an increase in cases of child malnutrition. Dr. Chitramali de Silva, the bureau director of the health ministry's family health bureau, stated earlier this month that severe acute malnutrition among children had increased to 1.4 percent this year, up from 1.1 percent the previous year.
The health ministry's remarks came just days after the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) reported that at least 56,000 children in Sri Lanka suffer from severe acute malnutrition. According to the World Food Programme's most recent figures, 32% of households are now food insecure, and 68% are resorting to food-based coping strategies such as eating less preferred foods or reducing the number of meals and portion sizes. In addition, Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, was thrown into financial and political turmoil earlier this year due to a currency shortage.
As a result, the country cannot afford key imports such as fuel, fertilizer, and medicines, resulting in serpentine lines. Due to foreign exchange shortages, the island could not fund imports during the crisis, resulting in shortages of essentials. Protests on the streets against the government's mismanagement of the economy led to the ouster of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in mid-July.
