Abstract:
Kurunegala district, which consists of a considerable extent of lands and favourable environmental conditions for
dairy farming, accounts for 38% of the total national milk production of the country. Both small and large scale
dairy production units are found in the district and current milk production has been accounted 54% of the targeted
annual milk production in the district. Accordingly, there is a gap between the targeted and actual milk production
in the district. This study attempted to discover the issues contributing to create this gap, specially targeting to
production and marketing, and suggest solutions towards sustainable development of the small scale dairy farming
systems in the district. A sample of 100 small scale dairy farmers from 10 veterinary divisions were subjected to
the field survey using three stage stratified sampling method. The average milk yield per month per cow was
reported between 101.5 L– 80 L showing a huge gap between expected and present production volumes. Further,
major milk production issues creating a gap between expected and prevailing milk production volumes were
discovered as insufficient profit, insufficient technical support, labour scarcity, insufficient grasslands,
unavailability of improved breeds, insufficient knowledge and scarcity of buyers. The benefit cost ratio was below
0.64 including family labour cost, and 3.81 not including family labour cost. Further, net return was Rs.-6165 per
month with family labour cost, and Rs.8235 without family labour cost. The findings lead for suggestions to
reconsider changing the prevailing policies pertaining to provision of dairy farming inputs, addressing marketing
problems and enhancing supportive services for achieving sustainable development in small scale dairy farming
systems in Kurunegala district
