by Maheesha Mudugamuwa Dairy farmers have urged the Government to compensate them for their losses incurred by the Government led imported heifer project. All Island Farmer’s Federation (AIFF) Convener Namal Karunaratne told The Sunday Morning that thousands of farmers were affected by the unproductive and disease carrying heifers imported by the government. As a result the farmers had lost their way of income as well as some farmers has lost their lands. “A number of heifers already died and the new born calves are also suffering from diseases,” he stressed. The farmers were promised that the new heifers would produce 30 litres per day, but in reality the yield is only about 11 litres per day. Majority of farmers bought heifers from the government after obtaining loans from banks and as a result of the current situation, they are left with no way to pay their loans, he stressed. Karunaratne said that the Government had spent Rs. 520,000 per heifer and sold it to farmers at a lower rate of Rs. 200,000. The project was initiated by the then-Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa in 2014, with the aim of enhancing the country’s milk production and to achieve self-sufficiency in milk production by 2020. The agreement was signed for a $ 73 million project to import 20,000 heifers from Australia under the previous government in 2014, with Wellard Rural Exports (Pvt.) Ltd. of Australia. The project was then revived by Minister P. Harrison and as a result the Government brought down 2,000 heifers from New Zealand on 12 May, 2017 following the Cabinet approval obtained on 24 March, 2017; and again in December, 2017, 3,000 heifers were imported from Australia. “We complained about this to the Auditor General’s Department. Appropriate legal action will be taken against this massive corruption,” he added. Last year, the Department of Animal Production and Health (DAPH) confirmed that a total of 22 calves that were infected by Bovine Viral Disease (BVD) were slaughtered in a dramatic effort to stop the spread of the devastating disease. Officials said it’s the only way to fully eradicate the disease from the country. The department said that the disease was not in Sri Lanka earlier, but it was reported after the Government brought down the heifers from New Zealand and Australia. In February last year, the department informed the Rural Economic Affairs Ministry that the calves were infected with BVD and a disease called Liver Fluke, that was recognised following sample tests conducted in local laboratories. The samples were sent to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAE) for further experiments. The WOAE report subsequently stated that the samples were BVD positive and Liver Fluke disease was ruled out.