Dairy Sri Lanka

Ruminant production In Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, approximately 12,000 km² of the total land area is under grass (Premadasa, 1990). Using grassland for livestock through traditional means goes back several centuries. The cohesiveness of traditional societies and social groups in livestock rearing led to holistic approaches that resulted in appropriate, environmentally sound sustainable technologies. Nevertheless, as in many other countries, Sri Lankan grasslands have depleted due to mismanagement under the existing socio-economic position. However grasslands remain very important for livestock production and environment stability. There is an essential need to maintain a broad spectrum of production and conservation interests in order to ensure the effective and suitable management of the grassland resources. (Premaratne et al., 2003).

General Background

Livestock rearing in the country not solely depends on the agro-ecological conditions (like climate or pasture) but also on the farming traditions (for instance crop-livestock integration) and the farmer’s socio-cultural and religious environment. The main purpose of cattle keeping differ according to the type, breed, and agro-ecological zone. For example, up-country, improved cattle are kept only for milk and manure, whereas the local Lankan cattle are also used as draught animals. In the coconut triangle, buffaloes provide both milk and draught. In Sri Lanka, cattle and buffaloes are not reared for meat purpose, because of religious barriers and, meat is a by-product of the dairy industry. Most of the older animals, culled animals, male animals and native animals are being slaughtered to produce beef. It is illegal to slaughter buffaloes. Leather is a by-product from the slaughtered animals.

In general, 1.8 million smallholdings covering 1.42 million hectares (approximately 0.8 hectares per holding) produce food crops and animal products mostly for domestic consumption; a third of holdings have livestock. On the other hand, holdings of the cattle population (holdings of less than 4 hectares) account for about 95 % in the livestock sector

Milk is the principal element of the livestock sector, having reached a level of about 27,430,800 L in 2013 and 27,825,300 L in 2015. Of this about 60-70% is domestically consumed or locally marketed. Only about one-third of the total production is processed into milk powder, yoghurt, butterfat etc. To satisfy the national demand, a total of 65,792,177 kg of dairy products, mainly milk powder are annually imported, which cost US$ 109,512,105 per year (Livestock Statistics, 2002). According to FAOSTAT the value of all dairy products imported in 2003 was US$119,908,000 and US$122,359,000 in 2004, of which almost US$112 M (2003) and US$113 M (2004) was for dry milk powder. In addition beef and veal imports in 2003 and 2004 were 50 and 54 mt, chicken meat was 2,314 and 1,645 mt, with milk equivalent imports totaling 506,901 and 434,483 mt (FAO Stat)

2.1.2 Agro-ecological regions and livestock production
According to the livestock production, the country is divided into six agro-ecological regions.

• Up-Country
• Mid-Country                                              
• Coconut Triangle
• Low Country Wet Zone (Wet Lowland)
• Dry Zone (Dry Lowland)
• Jafna Penusuela