The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation says he will explore releasing uncultivated land at a state-owned up-country farm to dairy farmers, in an effort to lift milk production in the Nuwara Eliya district.
Lal Kantha made the undertaking during an observation tour of dairy farms in the Hatton–Kotagala area, Hiru News reported on Saturday evening.
The land in question belongs to the National Livestock Development Board at its Kotagala Rosita farm. The minister said he would take up with the relevant parties the possibility of handing its unworked acreage to dairy farmers, and would find a solution.
What the tour covered
The minister visited the farms of smallholder dairy producers on the Kotagala Rosita estate, whom Hiru described as making a substantial contribution to the domestic milk industry. He discussed their problems with them directly and said remedies would be provided quickly.
He also went to a privately run livestock farm on the Kotagala Harrington estate and examined how it is kept running successfully — a notable inclusion on a state-sector visit, and one that suggests the ministry is looking at the private operation as a working model.
Cheques were handed to several selected dairy farmers in the Nuwara Eliya district who run successful operations.
The programme was organised jointly by the Central Province Ministry of Animal Production and Health and the Central Province Department of Agriculture. That attribution is independently visible in Hiru’s own footage of the visit, in which an officer attending the minister wears a jacket marked “Department of Animal Production & Health (Central Province)”.
Why the land matters
Kotagala and Hatton sit in the cool, high-elevation belt of the Nuwara Eliya district, the part of Sri Lanka best suited to temperate dairy breeds and the base of much of the country’s fresh-milk output. Land there is almost entirely committed — to tea, to plantation housing, or to state farms — so unworked state acreage is one of the few expansion routes available to a smallholder who already has cattle.
No figures were given for how much land is uncultivated at the Rosita farm, how it might be allocated, on what tenure, or on what timetable. Nor was the value of the cheques disclosed.
Two notes on the source. This report rests on a single verified newsroom; no other verified Sri Lankan outlet had filed on the visit at the time of writing. Readers should also be aware that Hiru’s English headline renders the minister as “Lal Kotagala”, merging his name with the place he was visiting. His name is K.D. Lal Kantha; Kotagala is the town.
Sources: Hiru News, October 24.
