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Cattle import: Concerns have been addressed, say project officials
The Government is facing harsh criticism over fresh plans to bring cattle from Australia after hundreds perished the last time they were imported in 2017.
But the proposal has been widely rehashed to reflect concerns and correct mistakes, authorities insisted this week. It is now hoped to bring in Australian cattle for breeding and not milch cows as had been done earlier. Additionally, the livestock will not be distributed among farmers, but bred at the National Livestock Development Board (NLDB) farms, so that a hardier second generation will be available to the local milk industry.
Even this proposal is subject to review by an independent expert panel comprising academics and experts in the dairy sector, said Sagarika Sumanasekara, Director of the Dairy Development Project of the Rural Economic Development Ministry. The Cabinet will make its final decision based on their report, which is due in a month.
An agreement signed several years ago envisaged the importation of livestock under a US$ 73mn Export Finance Australia loan. Its terms have now been revised in a manner that addresses the concerns of Sri Lanka’s dairy industry, Dr Sumanasekara said. The project’s scope had also changed so it will run parallel to the ‘Saubhagya National Programme of Harvesting and Cultivation’.
The total number of milch cows to be imported via the agreement was 20,000, but only 5,000 came in before the scheme was suspended over severe criticism and failure. However, a US$ 11mn mobilisation advance was paid in 2018 to revive the project’s second phase.
Now, instead of accepting the remaining 15,000 cattle, the funds will go towards growing fodder, improvement of NLDB farm infrastructure and improvement of breeder facilities. Steps will be taken to combat potential inbreeding that could hamper the productivity of local cattle.
The NLDB farms where the breeding of the Australian livestock will take place will be selected on the basis of climate and other criteria.
The main challenge to Sri Lanka’s dairy industry was a lack of resources to maintain livestock, said Manjula Magamage, NLDB Chairman. The “lucrative importation” some people favoured was not a solution to this.
Sri Lanka produced 400,000 milk litres a day when the daily requirement was 1.2mn litres. Ninety-five percent of daily production was from small-scale farmers and the NLDB must empower them, Dr Magamage said. He blamed lack of accountability as well as professional errors for the livestock importation debacles that cost the Government and private investors millions.
“I am strongly against the distribution of imported animals to the general public,” he said. Any animal requires 10 percent of its body weight in food. Imported cattle that produce 30-40 litres of milk can weigh up to five hundred kilograms. The bigger the animal, the higher the food requirement: 150 litres of water and 50kg of grass a day. “How many of our small-scale farmers can provide these?” he asked.
In February, the Government held discussions with the Australian Ambassador to revise the contract. The tender must be awarded to an Australian company under the terms of the loan, Dr Sumanasekara said. But it will no longer be Wellard Ltd which faced a backlash during the project’s first phase. She also said farmers who bought — and lost — milch cows will be compensated while part of the loan will be used to assist those who had continued the project with some degree of success.
Investors are not all happy, though. Amal Suriyage has been at the forefront of a battle against the controversial deal. He called the new proposals “vague” and had no idea of any plans to compensate farmers who had suffered losses..
“The moral integrity of the whole project is questionable because the same irresponsible officials responsible for the mess last time are also associated with the new plans,” Mr Suriyage observed. The terms have to be in black-and-white, “especially when it’s clear that some officials are prisoners of the corporate.”
The viability of the new scope depends on the suitability of climatic conditions to the new breeders, feed availability, accurate produce projections and solutions for potential disease importation, said Tim Vasudeva, Director of Corporate Affairs at Animals Australia.
He called for a plan of action which addresses the concerns of Sri Lanka’s Auditor General — who slammed the importation of milch cows in a special report — local farmers and other stakeholders, and explains why the Government anticipates a different outcome this time.
Animals Australia was disappointed in Sri Lanka’s handling of the previous shipment of livestock, Mr Vasudeva said.