tamilweek.com

The U.S. Ambassador, Patricia A. Butenis, officially opened a new ice cream plant in Batticaloa District as part of a dairy revitalization project that will increase the incomes of 4,000 dairy farmers and create new jobs in the former conflict-affected area.

The project is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the development agency of the U.S. Government. USAID provided $3.75 million to initiate the project, leveraging funding from Land O’Lakes, a leading U.S. dairy producer, and CIC Agribusiness, a major Sri Lankan agricultural company.

U.S. Ambassador Patricia A. Butenis joined women farmers in Punani to launch a new milk project that will increase the incomes of 4000 dairy farmers in the East. The project is a public-private partnership funded by USAID, with support from CIC and Land O’Lakes.

Ambassador Butenis said, “The U.S. Government is proud to support this effort to revitalize the dairy industry in the East. This project will increase the incomes of participating farmers, ensure that the quantity and quality of milk produced in Sri Lanka improves, and reduce dependence on imported milk products.”

The project has established a network of farmers from Batticaloa, Trincomalee, and Polonnaruwa districts, teaching them new skills to increase the quantity and the quality of milk production. Before the conflict, the Eastern Province provided 30% of all milk production in the country, reflecting the great untapped potential of the dairy industry in the east. This project alone is expected to increase national milk collection by 9%.

Following the plant opening, Ambassador Butenis met with a group of mostly female dairy farmers who attended the event.

The American people, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, have provided development and humanitarian assistance in developing countries worldwide for nearly 50 years. Since 1956, USAID/Sri Lanka has invested nearly $2 billion to benefit all the people of Sri Lanka. [US Embassy Sri Lanka Press Release]

Land O’Lakes International Development Division earlier issued the following press statement on its “Dairy Enhancement in Eastern Province Program Launched in Sri Lanka” on Sep 4th:

Land O’Lakes International Development Division (IDD) announces the launch of the Dairy Enhancement in Eastern Province (DEEP) Program in Sri Lanka. The program’s overall objective is to connect Eastern Province dairy farmers to the dairy value chain and increase economic opportunities for participating dairy farmers. Not only will the program provide essential financial grants, technical assistance and training to participating program farmers aimed to improve on-farm productivity, but the program also will mobilize farmers into milk producer groups (MPGs) that will feed into program milk collection centers (MCCs) and link these centers to a consistent buyer of raw milk.

“This program is a unique opportunity for farmers to collectively own and operate milk collection centers, empowering them to negotiate better per-liter prices,” said Regional Project Manager for Asia Meredith Kruger. “Additionally, the farmers will pool their resources to better access inputs and business development services, such as veterinary care, that might otherwise be out of reach.”

Approximately 4,000 participating households, consisting of 20,000 family members, will benefit with an improvement in income, and the program will facilitate farmers organizing into 40 MPGs that will operate as independent and sustainable commercial businesses.

Paramount to the program is the Land O’Lakes strategic alliance with CIC Agri Businesses to expand economic opportunities for small-scale dairy producers of the province. Through the proposed Dairy Enhancement in Eastern Province (DEEP) program, the IDD alliance will build the technical and organizational capacities of dairy farmers and milk producer groups to enhance milk product quantity and quality. The three-year program will also leverage CIC Agri Businesses’ (CIC) planned investment in dairy processing facilities in the region, which will build producer-processor linkages to create steady streams of income for the region’s smallholder farmers and stimulate additional private sector investments in farm inputs and veterinary and breeding services.

DEEP will focus program activities in the Trincomalee and Batticaloa Districts of the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. IDD’s approach involves the phasing in of activities across three components: increasing the quantity and quality of raw milk through targeted training and technical assistance; establishing milk collection centers and forging linkages with milk producer groups; and establishing modern dairy processing facilities in a Partnership for Eastern Economic Revitalization (PEER) target province. The phasing allows for maximum benefit to be achieved within three years.