Smallholder Dairy Farm Milk Production and Marketing in East Sri Lanka

This book capture the vitality and dilemmas of milk production in Easter Sri Lanka by dairy farmers having cows and buffaloes. It is based on a dairy farmer survey conducted using a structured questionnaire in the districts of Batticaloa and Trincomalee, to collect data on dairy production and marketing issues. Discussions were also held with major stakeholders of the dairy industry. The introductory chapter provides a description of the dairy industry in general and an overview of dairy production in the Eastern Province. The chapters that follow provide information about the dairy ownership and management systems, breeds reared, feeding and dairy grazing practices, milk yield levels, expenditure, income obtained and its uses, marketing of milk, supportive services available and related issues. The most important challenges faced by dairy farmers were the problems of animal diseases, poor nutrition level of animals, lack of pastures to feed, limited access to grazing land and water availability. There is a potential for establishing of mlk processing industries to produce value-added milk products form the large quantities of milk produced in the areas studied.