Chris Lewis: Story will tug at heartstrings

Chris Lewis.

As New Zealand dairy farmers we often take for granted the sophistication of our industry and the relative ease we have in producing food for the nation and the world. April will not be one of those months for me.

I received a phone call last month from a Tear Fund organiser about a woman who was coming over from Sri Lanka to talk about the benefits of a project that has been designed and supported by Tear Fund and the New Zealand Government with Kiwi expertise to improve milk quality.

She is Selina Prem Kumar, the director of the successful dairy project in Sri Lanka. Her story will shock and move you.

The Wanni Dairy Regeneration programme she heads, started during the protracted civil war in Sri Lanka, has brought together Singhalese and Tamil small-hold dairy farmers for the common purpose of raising their incomes and revitalising the dairy industry which stalled during the conflict.

Looking at the struggles Selina has been through, you can only respect the levels she has gone to to advocate for peace and to rebuild Sri Lanka's dairy industry.

Her message as she tours through New Zealand this month will be only that much more powerful because of the struggles she's been through.

Selina lives in the patriarchal and Hindu region of North Sri Lanka, where she has witnessed the devastation of war at first hand as it raged for more than two decades before the Tamils were defeated in 2009. Yet, these are hurdles she has overcome to live an extraordinary life and bring reconciliation, restoration and growth to more than 280,000 distraught and displaced people.

War-torn Sri Lanka's biggest challenge is to unite the hearts of the people of the north and south in order to move forward.

This is something their government is trying to do along with getting their economy back on track.

Not in a million years could I ever imagine trying to be a dairy farmer with all this turmoil on top of me. But Selina is making it happen. She says dairy farmers there were earning about $40 to $50 a month only a few years ago, but some are now earning about $300 a month. They are starting from scratch and this tour is about importing knowledge rather than reinventing the wheel.

Among the things New Zealand has been providing has been our dairy farming expertise and technology. Kiwi companies QPod and Patton Refrigeration have adapted technology to create a cool chain to improve the quality of the milk being delivered to the processing factory, which has lifted farmers' incomes. Production has also lifted significantly, with New Zealand providing a breeding programme, along with education around feed management and veterinary extension services.

These things we take for granted, but Sri Lankan dairy farmers had nothing like that before this programme, and the purpose of this trip is to build on that. We have learned a lot from our privileged background and we can share that and provide some financial support.

My family sponsors a World Vision child in Tanzania and I know a lot of farmers do something similar. Farmers are community-minded and very generous people and this cause is something worth getting behind. Thanks to the legacy of our farming forefathers we can afford to be. So I encourage farmers to come hear Selina speak on April 17. You will get to hear what she is doing in Sri Lanka and how we can help.

First, she will speak at Otorohanga in the Kiwi House Meeting Room at 1pm, then she will come to my farm at about 3.30pm. If this story strikes a heart chord, you are more than welcome to meet her in my cow shed. It is an absolute privilege.

* Chris Lewis is provincial president for Federated Farmers Waikato.