A pilot project in Kurunegala will set up a "e-Dairy" offering easier access to on demand services, such as artificial insemination of milk cows, daily milk prices, dairy health services, etc., ordered via mobile phone SMS, according to a statement by Sri Lanka's Information and Technology Agency (ICTA).
Says Sunil Rodrigo, Senior Manager at Dambadeniya Development Foundation, who is charged with implementing this project, there are “560,000 milk cows in Sri Lanka. Out of these at a given time only 45% are milk-producing animals while 55% are dry. The 55% are dry due to lack of pregnancy. They are not pregnant because there is no facility to induce pregnancy by artificial insemination within nine hours after the signs of heat are observed.
If a pregnancy that could have been induced by artificial insemination (AI) is missed by the AI not being introduced within the effective timeframe of nine hours, 30 to 35 days of milking are missed. In terms of quantity of milk the loss is 300 litres of milk and in terms of money the loss is about Rs.12,000. If artificial information could be introduced within the effective time after the signs of heat, milk production could be increased by 30%. What is required to ensure this 30% increase is improvement in information and service”.
As such, the "e-Dairy" allows a registered farmer to send pre-existing short codes, via SMS, to order urgently needed services. For example, when a dairy farmers wants a technician to provide artificial insemination services "type out on his mobile phone his code number and the code number for the service ‘artificial insemination’, the code number for his preferred service provider and the time of sending the message and send this information using the Short Message Service (SMS). The sender will almost immediately receive an SMS to the effect that the request has been received".
The pilot project will initially service Dambadeniya, Narammala and Alawwa Veterinary divisions in the Kurunegala district, while the Dairy Resource Development Ministry has also introduced a new website, www.edairylanka.lk, which contains more information. |
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