The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, on behalf of the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation, I table the Answer.

¶ 02 Answer tabled:

¶ 03 (a) (i) Number of dairy farmers in Sri Lanka: 243,828. Daily milk production: 1,103,273 litres (~1.10 million litres). (ii) Anuradhapura District dairy farmers: 31,826. Daily milk production: 151,011 litres (~0.15 million). (iii) Average price per litre: Rs. 176.40 for curd milk; Rs. 201.94 for fresh milk. (iv) No. (v) Prices are determined by milk collection companies according to demand and supply. As producers are currently receiving a fair price commensurate with production costs, no price ceiling has been imposed by the Government. (vi) To achieve 75% self-sufficiency by 2030, a “Dairy Hub” programme is proposed to organize dairy farmers and supply-chain actors around veterinary range offices (“Dairy Hubs”) and empower dairy enterprises. Under this, 300 Dairy Hubs will be established nationwide, targeting daily production of 3.3 million litres by 2030 (about 1,200 million litres annually). Components include: - Programmes to raise farms producing under 20 litres/day to 20 litres; youth and women dairy enterprise development to 40 litres/day; medium farms to 100 litres/day. - Large-scale dairy farm development: incentivize private sector farms producing over 1,000 litres/day and establish farms producing 10,000 litres/day. - Capacity building via extension and continuous training; animal health programmes (FMD, BQ, HS) vaccination; expand artificial insemination and use of sexed semen; import breeding bulls (7) in collaboration with Pakistan for local semen production; targeted fodder cultivation, improved roughage and feed industry development; promote TMR feeding; improve milk quality infrastructure and consumer access to affordable dairy; reduce child undernutrition; concessional finance, equipment and inputs for farmers; strengthen research; mastitis control; promote good management practices at Dairy Hub farms (24/7 water, fodder conservation/silage, proper feeding, manage calving intervals, twice-daily milking, heifer calf rearing and nutrition). - Under the World Bank-funded Inclusive Connectivity Development Project (ICDP) Component 1 across 12 districts: establish fodder enterprises, mastitis control, improve chilling facilities, conduct trainings, upgrade quality assurance at collection centres, and promote evening milking.

¶ 04 (b) (i) Yes. (ii) Yes. The Treasury will provide concessional loans to SMEs for paddy purchases. (iii) No. (iv) Yes. A fair price per kilo is calculated as production cost plus a 30% profit margin. (v) For 2025/26 Maha, variety-wise prices have not yet been fixed; the Government will determine minimum purchasing prices beneficial to farmers per variety.

¶ 05 (c) Not applicable.