D.V.

Sunil de S Gamage
Retired Deputy Director – Veterinary Research
Livestock Specialist FAO. JICA CIDA, USAID, SAPP & Private Sector
December 21st, 2022

H E the President
Presidential Secretariat
Excellency,
Dairy Powered Smart Food Production
1. I want to highlight the fact that effective marketing will help us to end the present food
crisis.
1.1. Due to market and pricing unpredictability, crop-only farmers believe investing in
agriculture is a risky endeavor. Additionally, unlike dairy integrated crop producers,
crop-only farmers do not have access to reliable market contracts or a quality-based
pricing structure for their products.
1.2. Compared to two enterprise dairy-crop integrated farming, fixed costs in one
enterprise, such as crop-only, are greater.
1.3. In crop-alone farming, the market only deals with one particular farmer. The dairy
market, however, works with a group of farmers. This has the benefit that the second
group benefits from economies of scale and scope.
2. Together, SATHOSA and MILCO's milk collection network will be able to gather milk
and agricultural produce simultaneously.
2.1. Therefore, crop-only farmers might have less marketing uncertainty.
2.2. This process might initially be used to the current dairy integrated crop farmers.
2.3. Before adopting the suggested marketing system, crop-only farmers can incorporate
dairy into their farming practices.
2.4. This strategy, called DAIRY POWERED SMART PURCHASING &
MARKETING, benefits the producer, marketer, and consumer in equal measure.
3. Then, like the milk supplying farmers, all of our crop-only farmers will start receiving
payments daily or biweekly under this strategy.
3.1. Now that they are only collecting 75% of the proceeds from crop sales over the
course of a three-month period.
3.2. Hence, farmers must find non-agricultural jobs for the remaining time in order to
survive.
3.3. The annual income for both crop-only and crop + pluriactivity are divided by 12 to
get the monthly income.
3.3.1. This indicates that in three months, two farmer groups will receive Rs.
363,177 (crop-only) and Rs. 354,744 (crops+pluriactivity).
3.3.2. Crop-only farmers receive Rs 121,059 (or Rs 448 / US$ 1.35 per day) and
Crop+Pluriactivity farmers receive Rs 118,248 (or Rs 438 / US$ 1.20 per day)
respectively from farming as their household income for the remaining 9
months.

4. My next point is that formal financial institutions do not support smallholder farming
because they believe it to be an unproductive line of work.
4.1. Hence, the largest investors in the crop farming and for monthly family needs, are
obtained from private loan businessmen and pawning places.
4.2. This demonstrates that crop farming cannot sustain rural family economies, and rural
development is based on a collection of family economics.
4.3. Consequently, it is reported that only 18% of smallholder farmers work full time as
farmers (DA2000).
4.4. However, because dairy farmers make twice as much money than farmers who solely
grow crops, and because they can afford to pay their monthly dues, formal finance
institutions support the dairy integrated farmers.
5. My next point is this Post-harvest losses in milk marketing is minimal, compared to post-
harvest losses in crop marketing.
5.1. This is because the crop farmers have to transport his products to markets or
collectors.
5.2. Whereas, Milk collecting network, purchases and transports all milk from the milk
producers’ villages in a cold chain.
 5.3. This farm gate collection system of milk, will lessen these post-harvest losses, which
will benefit both the farmer and the customer.
5.4. Then the prices of merchandize can be kept at a low level.
5.5. Last but not least, the milk collection networks will significantly lower food inflation
as food wastage is minimal.
6. Then 80% smallholder farmers (less than 2 ha) contribute 80% food (DA2013).
6.1. This is just 7.3% of Gross Domestic Production, but the importance of food
availability and food security is more valuable today than ever before.
6.2. If we don’t change this approach, farming will have no Future, as our youth will
understand that there will be no Future in Farming as a profession.
6.3. As far as food production is concerned, we are currently in a crisis situation.
7. This dairy-powered food production will boost agricultural yields but also enable us to
quickly become self-sufficient in milk production.
7.1. Nevertheless, just 15% of crop producers incorporate dairy in their farming practices.
8. Two causes primarily account for this; nevertheless, the first component also has an
impact on the second instance.
8.1. The first issue is the feeding of cattle.
8.2. The following approach makes this problem simple to resolve.
8.2.1. This hydroponic system, I used this hydroponic system, as the paddy Dapok
nursery in 1970 in Sri Lanka. It’s not new.

8.2.2. Efficiency of the hydroponic fodder system

 8.2.3. Maximizing the benefits for cattle, buffalo, and goats from the current feed
resource base.

8.3. The next point is that because they believe it is unethical to sell slaughtered cows for
meat, Buddhists, Hindus, and New Generation Youth choose not to farm cattle.
8.3.1. However, under our production system and productivity we can keep dairy
cows productive till 20 years age.
8.3.2. This is my personal experience from my farm, as my father was a strict
vegetarian and refused to sell cows.
 8.3.3. This will not only increase the income of the farmer, but also assist in solving
replacement stock shortage problem.

9. This is a different approach than our past projects.

9.1. The past projects were focusing on increasing milk production of the existing 15%
farmers
9.2. Here we were focusing on increasing individual milk production of the existing 15%
farmers and also to increase the number of farmers integrating dairy in their crop
farming system from 15%. This is not difficult as in the past the grandparents of
these farmers had cattle and buffalo from 1935.
10. I believe that this approach will have a greater impact on food production in Sri Lanka if
all relevant departments synchronized and work for the benefit of our farming
community. These departments include Agriculture, Animal Production and Health,
Forest and Agrarian Development.

Thank you.
With best wishes

Sunil Gamage

Retired Deputy Director – Veterinary Research. (Mobile 0717819903)

Consultant FAO, JICA, CIDA, USAID, ILRI, SAPP, & SL Private Sector as a Poultry &
Livestock Specialist.