Technical Assistance

A critical component for the success of the Market-Oriented Dairy project relies on transfer of knowledge, technical assistance and sharing of financial and management best practices to meet the project’s overall objectives to improve quantity, quality and productivity of the dairy sector. The 4.5-year program adopts an intense process to carry out a needs assessment, develop appropriate training modules, train the trainers where needed, identify the correct beneficiaries and conduct the required training.

The core areas being addressed through training are : Capacity building of agricultural extension agents/services in both public and private sector and freelance trainers, Training on best practices for productivity, Improving artificial insemination services, Enabling dairy farming as a business and entrepreneurship, Developing agro-dealers and/or input suppliers, Formalizing breeder programs at medium- and large-scale farms, Developing private input retail operations and silage/fodder enterprises, Training bank’s extension staff, Capacity building of All Island Dairy Association (AIDA), Processors, Co-ops and farmer societies.

Market-Oriented Dairy Entrepreneur Development Program is designed to transfer knowledge and best practices to develop the capacities of Sri Lanka’s dairy farmers and extension staff in the dairy value chain through training interventions. To effectively reach the 6500 dairy farmers through the life time of the project, Training of Trainers are being conducted by Master Trainers from the University of Florida providing technical knowledge combined with local expertise with in-country knowledge to enable these trainers to conduct onward farmer training.

Market-Oriented Dairy Commercial Fodder Development Program is designed to transfer knowledge and best practices to develop sufficient fodder cultivators and sellers of green grass and silage to dairy farmers to meet the year-around nutritional requirements of the dairy herds, thereby, sustainably addressing one of the largest constraints of the dairy sector.

Market-Oriented Dairy Input Retail Entrepreneurship Development Program is designed to provide business management skills to develop agrodealers and input suppliers to increase the amount of inputs (including quality animals, fodder, and silage) available for dairy farmers