Kumari team says research hit by lack of funds

Research activities at the Peradeniya University, one of Sri Lanka’s world renowned higher education institutes, has been hampered by lack of funds, researchers said. They said that neither the university nor the Council for Agriculture Research Policy had adequate funds to back more scientific and agriculture research.

They said the recent success stories of the university’s Veterinary Medicine Faculty in producing Kumari I and Kumari II – two lab-made goats through a process of artificial insemination – bore testimony to the skills and knowledge of researchers. “The Kumari projects were completed against many odds,” one research student said.

Kumari research team leader Dr. Basil Alexander said if more funds were available, they could conduct more research and produce cattle that would give more milk. The Embryo Biotechnology Research team of the University produced the 'second' kid' by employing the embryo transfer technology. The goat named Kumari II was born to a surrogate mother.

“Our initial experiments on embryo production and transfer in Sri Lanka have resulted in great success. The new born kid is in good health and fully active. The new born kid was named as “Peradeniya Kumari – II”. She was born at the faculty’s Animal Hospital,” Dr. Alexander said,

The same team was responsible for the birth of Kumari I earlier this year. Dr. Alexander said the team hoped to develop this technology to produce cattle that would give more milk. The research team is working on production of cattle embryos and investigating the possibility of producing cattle suitable to different climatic zones of the country.

The research team comprised Dr. Dammika Perera, Dr. L.N.A. de Silva, Dr. P.G.A. Pushpakumara and Dr. Basil Alexander. Dr. Alexander said the government should realize the importance of research and help develop technologies that would eventually benefit not only livestock farmers but also the country as a whole.

He lamented that the funds allocated for this year were less than last year. The funds for the Kumari projects came largely from the Council of Agricultural Research Policy (CARP), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the University of Guelph, Canada.