Production of Goat Milk & Milk Products in India : Prospects & Processing Technology

Production of Goat Milk & Milk Products in India : Prospects & Processing Technology

Milk is nature’s most complete foods in terms of humans’ diverse nutritional requirements. Milk for us is always Cow milk. Somehow we never think of goat’s milk. Maybe, because that’s how our brains are cultured. Seldom did we know that goat milk and goat milk products form a part of Indian revenue. India was ranked the number one producer of goat milk in 2017 by an estimated production of 50 Lakh metric tonnes.

Goat milk is extremely nutritious containing protein, carbohydrate, fat, minerals, and vitamins. Just like cow’s milk, goat milk is also used to make butter, yogurt, cheese, ice cream and various other products. The goat is one of the most versatile domestic animals in adaptation to arid and humid, tropical and cold, desert and mountain conditions providing people with many important products, such as meat, milk, cashmere, mohair, skins, leather, draught and pack power, and manure for crops and gardens. The growing interest in goat milk is not only focused on the sustenance of the poor and rural people with small land holdings and to educate them of the value and acceptability of goat milk, but also as an important “super” dairy food product with special medical, nutritional, biological, and immunological characteristics.

The global goat milk products market size is anticipated to reach USD 17.90 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 4.6% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The global market is predominantly driven by the increasing demand for goat milk in infant food and follow-on formula.

Key Insights & Findings from the report:

• The powdered product segment is expected to register the fastest CAGR over the forecast period.
• The demand for powdered goat milk is increasing among both consumers and manufacturers mainly due to long shelf life, which played a key role during pandemic-induced lockdown.
• The demand for powdered milk is increasing among infant formula manufacturers owing to its high nutritional value, low sugar, high beta-casein, and lower alpha S1-casein, which help in easy digestion.
• The B2B segment is expected to witness the CAGR over the forecast period. This is due to the increasing demand for various goat milk products, such as chevre, butter, cheese, flavored milk, and yogurt among others.

Goat Milk Products Market Growth & Trends

Goat milk is considered healthier than cow milk owing to its nutritional profile. According to Ausnutria Dairy Corporation Ltd., the demand for goat milk is increasing in infant foods and follow-on formula products application. This is on account of the easy digestibility of goat milk and its high nutritional quality. In addition, it contains all essential amino acids with a high Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score (DIAAS).

It also contains naturally higher nucleotide levels, which are important for cell metabolism, and has a high level of oligosaccharides, which are essential elements as they act as a prebiotic. All these benefits associated with goat milk are driving its demand among consumers and manufacturers. The prices of goat milk products were observed slightly high in some countries in 2020 owing to the disruption in the supply chain due to the outbreak of Coronavirus. As per the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), Asia Pacific is the largest producer and consumer of goat milk in the world. The market is developing in countries, such as New Zealand and China, which do not have a tradition of goat milk.

India remained the world’s largest producer of goat milk products. The lower-middle-class group in the country has the majority of goats and deliver milk to dairies. In 2019, the total goat milk production in India was recorded at around 5.4 million tons. India is the largest producer of goat milk in the world. The country alone accounts for approximately one-fourth of the global production. Europe is the second-largest market. Germany, Italy, and France are the major contributors to the Europe regional market. Germany is the largest importer and exporter of goat milk in the world. France is the largest producer and Italy is the largest consumer of goat milk in the region.

Top Ten Goat Milk Producing Nations in the world

1. India 5,000,000 metric tons of goat milk annually
2. Bangladesh 2,616,000 metric tons
3. Sudan 1,532,000 metric tons
4. Pakistan 801,000 metric tons
5. Mali 720,000 metric tons
6. France 580,694 metric tons
7. Spain 471,999 metric tons
8. Turkey 415,743 metric tons
9. Somalia 400,000 metric tons
10. Greece 340,000 metric tons

Goat farming is becoming popular in Rural areas and towns of India nowadays as it involves minimum financial outlay and risk, but good profits. Goats can be raised in small areas of land as they require much less care and maintenance than other farm animals. Goat farming can be combined with rearing, breeding of other livestock such a sheep and cows. They are usually raised and bred for production of milk, meat and leather either in small or big scale. Different varieties or breeds of goat are good for milk production or for meat, leather.

Goat breed selection is very important as different breeds require to be raised, bred differently to get maximum output for milk or meat.

Best breeds for milk production.

1. Jamnapyari is a popular breed of goat found in Uttar Pradesh reared mainly for milk. They are good-looking, healthy by nature and rarely attacked by illnesses affecting other breeds.
2. Surti goat breed is found in Surat, Gujarat and raised for good quality and quantity of milk. It is small in size, white in color and can be managed easily to graze in open areas.
3. Osmanabadi breed is found mainly in Western Maharashtra , adjacent parts of Telengana and reared mainly for milk.
4. Jakhrana breed is found mainly in Rajasthan and gives good milk production.
5. Barbari breed of goats are reared for dual purpose and give good quantity of milk.

Formulation of breeding strategies for Improvement of goat

A good breeding strategy is an integral part of genetic improvement of goats for meat, fibre and milk production. While formulating the breeding strategy for goat improvement, the formulators should take care of the following criteria:

1. Adaptability of the breeds in the local agro-climatic conditions
2. Socio-economic condition of the farmer
3. Market demands
4. Availability of good quality bucks
5. Conservation of indigenous recognised breeds by preventing them from rampant genetic dilution

Breeding Strategies for improving goat milk production

The exotic breeds like Alpine, Sannen have been used with indigenous breed to improve their milk production. Among indigenous breeds, Jamunapari, Beetal, Barbari, Jhakrana, Sirohi and Surti are the major dairy breeds although their milk production is not as par that of the exotic superior dairy breeds. Both selective breeding and crossbreeding can be adopted based on the need of the locality, demand for the market, traits under consideration.  Since, milk yield traits are medium to high heritable in nature, response to selection will be better. Performance recording and progeny testing programs should be encouraged to select and propagate elite bucks. Nucleus flocks/herds can be established with best performing females and their male progenies and can be linked with farmers flock. Artificial insemination with liquid and preferably frozen semen may be adopted to make the progeny testing programmed more effective.  Jamunapari, Beetal, Jakhrana and Surti could be used as improved breeds in other regions for boosting up both milk and meat production. Crossing of low producing indigenous breeds and non-descript may be taken up with Sannen goat breeds. The crosses of Sannen have exhibited optimal performance in milk production, survivability and reproduction. However, the crossbreeding with Sannen should be taken up only in areas where feed resources are better and there is possibility of making available cultivated fodder/concentrate (Mandal, 2014)

Policy issues and recommendations

1. Availability of reliable data on goat breeds population at different areas and trends over time is one of the chief criterion for formulating appropriate breeding policies and strategies. Hence, there is a need for availability of good quality authenticated data on indigenous goats of India.
2. Animal identification and field performance recording of indigenous goat breeds needs to be started. This will assist in identifying superior germplasms for further use in breeding programme.
3. Participation of livestock keepers in the genetic improvement programme should be encouraged.
4. Genetic improvement is permanent and is inherited from parental generation to the progenies automatically so long as the selected elite animals are used for breeding and their progenies are used for further breeding. But genetic and environmental improvements act synergistically. Hence, making the genetic improvement programmes broader by addressing disease/health, nutrition and management will bring more success.
5. The period of a genetic improvement programme should be minimum 10 years and require strong institutional/organizational support.
6. Encouraging semen freezing and artificial insemination (AI) technology can effectively overcome the problem of unavailability of good quality breeding bucks and the small holder farmers’ difficulty and economic non-feasibility of maintaining a buck.

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Goat Milk & Milk Products

DR MUDIT CHANDRA, GOATY MILK

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