Challenges and Strategies for Sustainable Dairy Farming in India

Challenges and Strategies for Sustainable Dairy Farming in India

Ajoy Das

M.V.Sc Scholar

Livestock Production and Management

ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute –Eastern Regional Station,

Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal- 741235

Key words: Advance technology, Challenging, Dairy Farmer, Feeds and fodders, Germplasm, Indian economy, Modernization, Poor adoption, Unorganized,

Introduction

India has the greatest level of milk production and consumption among all countries. In 2019, it was reported that the dairy industry in India was increasing at a rate of 5.69 % annually. The Indian government reported that 198.44 million tonnes of milk had been produced in the calendar year 2019–20, and the average highest milk-producing state is Punjab with the highest per capita availability of milk at 1221 g/head/day while the national per capita availability is 406 g/day/person. India is the world’s largest dairy animals producer and has a diverse animal population, ranking first in buffalo population and second in goat population. India contributes to 13% of the world’s cattle population and 57% of the world’s buffalo population. According to the 2019 livestock census, India has around 302.79 million bovines, including 192.49 million cattle and 109.85 million buffaloes. Approximately 48.34% of milk is produced by buffaloes and 49% by cattle, of which 57% comes from crossbreds between indigenous Bos indicus and exotic Bos taurus dairy breeds. As of 2019-20, goat milk is the third-most produced type of milk with a contribution of 2.95%. Indigenous cattle populations have been declining, while the more productive exotic and crossbred breeds have been increasing. On average, indigenous cows produce 3.08 kilograms of milk per day, compared to 8.20 kilograms per day for crossbred cows and 11.48 kilograms per day for exotic cows (DAHD, 2019-20).

Dairy sector will be in high demand during the next 50 years in developing countries for three reasons. Firstly, the increased per capita income will increase demand for dairy products, and these products will increasingly provide essential nutrients for the country. Secondly, dairy products contain a broad spectrum of amino acids as well as minerals such as iron, zinc, vitamin A, vitamin B12, and calcium, which are all deficient in many malnourished people and these dairy products adequately fulfill human nutritional requirements in terms of dairy farming practices. Therefore, it can improve the overall nutritional status of many malnourished individuals in the country. Thirdly, in comparison to other livestock or poultry products and some plant products, the production of dairy products requires less land to produce 1 g of readily edible protein (Clark and Tillman, 2017; Roser and Ritchie, 2017).

Dairy Sector and Indian Economy

The dairy sector is growing as a major industry in India’s economy and plays a vital part in the country’s socio-economic development. The dairy industry contributes significantly to national economy. This sector contributes to crop productivity by supplying draught power, organic manure, and financial income on a consistent manner. Although India ranks top in milk production, milk productivity in rural areas is quite low. One of the causes for rural farmers’ poor milk output is a lack of technical dairy information sources. Agriculture and livestock husbandry are the primary occupations of rural people, and consequently the primary source of income and employment. The dairy industry not only provides income and employment for farmers, but it also fulfills the different nutritional needs of individuals.

India is the world’s seventh-largest nation in terms of land area (2.42%) and the second-most populated country (with nearly 1.36 billion people). Annual average GDP growth has been 6% to 7% since the beginning of the 21^st century, and India was the world’s fastest growing major economy from 2013 to 2020. In terms of farm output, India presently ranks second in the world. After the United States, India holds the world’s second most arable land. Agriculture (together with forestry and fisheries) contributes for 17.1% of India’s overall GDP. Livestock contributed 16% to the income of small farm households as against an average of 14% for all rural households. Two-thirds of rural communities depend on livestock for livelihood. Livestock sector provides employment to about 8.8 % of the population in India. India has large livestock resources. Livestock sector contributes 4.11% GDP and 25.6% of total Agriculture GDP.

 Table 1. SWOT analysis of Indian Dairy Industry

Strengths	ü  A large livestock population is a vital asset for the Indian dairy industry. ü  Milk productivity of Indian dairy animals is very low, and there is much scope for improvement. ü  People in India consume milk as a part of their daily diet, which provides steady growth in milk consumption. ü  Indian milk cooperatives help farmers get proper milk prices.
Weaknesses	ü  In Indian dairy farms, the spread of cross-breeds and high-yielding animals is limited, and a large number of low-yielding animals are found. ü  It is challenging for dairy farms to supply raw milk to processing plants due to poor roads and infrastructure. ü  Many dairy farms lack knowledge about modern scientific dairy farming techniques, clean milk production, and integrated supply chains.
Threats	ü  The introduction of crossbreeds has put many valuable indigenous cattle breeds at risk. ü  It is possible to replace farm cattle milk with substitutes such as soya milk, coconut milk, etc. ü  Majority of milk procurements are still controlled by middlemen. This needs to be addressed seriously.
Opportunities	ü  With the opening up of the Indian economy, milk producers have huge opportunities to sell their products in international markets. ü  By integrating with milk cooperatives, dairy farms can increase productivity and profitability. ü  Innovative technologies can help dairy farms improve productivity, efficiency, and profitability

 

Challenges of Sustainable Dairy Farming in India

The Indian dairy sector is different from other dairy-producing countries as emphasis is placed on both cattle and buffalo milk. In order to achieve greater profitability, quality standards need to be improved. The following are some of the practical dairy farming challenges in India.

1. Shortage of animal feeds and fodders:

At present, India faces a shortage of 23.4 percent for dry fodder, 11.24 percent for green fodder, and 28.9 percent for concentrates (IGFRI Annual Report, 2019). Currently, the country produces fodder on only 5 percent of its cultivable land. National Agricultural Technology Programme (NATP) data and the 19th livestock census revealed that India is facing fodder shortage and that the quality of the feed available is poor and does not meet necessary feeding standards of animals. With the increasing popularity of high breed animals, there is a huge demand for good quality feed and fodder to meet the dietary requirements of milking animals. There are an excessive number of unproductive dairy animals that are competing for feed and fodder with productive dairy animals. In the recent years, grazing areas have been shrinking significantly due to industrial development, which has resulted in a shortage in feed and fodder supply. The small and marginal farmers and agricultural labourers engaged in the dairy farming do not have the capability to purchase adequate feeds and fodder, therefore their animals remained under fed. In standard dairy production systems, feed costs account for up to 70% of total costs. Consequently, the dairy farming profitability is affected by high-cost feeding.

2. Lack of high yielding germplasm:

Low productivity and yield of Indian dairy animals is the major challenge face by the Indian farmer. Although India possesses a large livestock population and is the world’s largest producer of milk; however, productivity of dairy animals has been extremely low, turning this vital asset into a liability for the poor. More than 60% of rural households keep large ruminants, mostly for milk production and partly for draught purpose from bullocks. However, the average milk yield of Indian dairy animals is significantly low.

Table: Average Yield per animal during 2018-19 (Kg/Day) (DAHD, 2019)

Exotic Cows	Crossbred Cows	Indigenous Cows	Non-Descript Cows	Indigenous Buffaloes	Non-Descript Buffalo	Goat
11.67	7.85	3.85	2.50	6.34	4.35	0.45

 

3. High cost of milk production:

The cost of milk production in India needs to be reduced in order to get good income from milk. The main reason of the high cost of milk production is the low average milk yield of Indian cattle, i.e. 987 kilograms/year compared to 6273 kilograms/year in Denmark, 5289 kilograms/year in France, 5938 kilograms/year in Canada, 5462 kilograms/year in the United Kingdom, 7038 kilograms/year in the United States, and 11000 kilograms/year in Israel. As a result, farmers in other countries spend much less than farmers in India. Therefore, this high yield has been achieved through proper feed, water management, and housing, in addition to superior germplasm.

4. Unorganized Indian Dairy sector:

The most fundamental feature of the Indian dairy industry is that it is still mostly unorganized. Only 18-20% of India’s total milk production is handled in the organized sector. The unorganized sector has still not integrated into the modern processing infrastructure. Even though India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of milk; however, per capita consumption is much lower than that of developed countries. India is neither an active importer nor an active exporter in the dairy sector. The main challenges faced by the dairy industry are procurement and transportation. The procurement of fresh milk is the most essential part of the dairy industry. Due to the perishable nature of milk, it is not possible to procure milk beyond a 200 km radius. Cold storage and supply chain difficulties affect India’s dairy industry.

5. Poor adoption of technology by Indian dairy farmer:

There are already proven high-yielding varieties of fodder and technologies for feeding livestock such as urea-molasses treatment, silage and hay making. Unfortunately, these technologies are very poorly adopted by many farmers in most states. According to the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) report, on an average, India produces 500 million tons of crop residue each year. The same report shows that most of this crop residue is used in domestic and industrial applications as fodder as well as fuel. Despite that, there is still a surplus of 140 million tons, of which 92 million tons are burned every year and could potentially be used as animal feed.

Artificial Insemination (AI) is the most affordable and convenient method for dispersing improved genetics to farmers’ doorsteps. India started to use Artificial Insemination (AI) on 1970 onwards. However, AI coverage of bovines is about 30%, ranging from 71% to less than 1% in several states. Consequently, 65 percent of animals are still bred naturally either because the services are not available at the farmers’ doorstep or because of poor efficacy of frozen semen or non-availability of well-trained AI technician.

6. High economic losses of dairy farmer due to diseases:

Farmers have a huge financial burden due to animal diseases. The higher quality of germplasm that has been achieved via the cross-breeding program has resulted in an increase in the susceptibility of these animals to a wide range of diseases, including exotic diseases. Inadequate vaccination coverage is continuously resulting in economic losses attributed to a wide variety of animal diseases. It is difficult to include accurate estimates of the losses caused by the various diseases since it is impossible to record all diseases in all locations. The direct losses evaluated based on reported diseases suggested that average yearly economic losses because of Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (HS), Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), Brucellosis, Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), were in tune of Rs. 5255 crores (2014), Rs. 20000 crores (2016), Rs. 20400 crores (2015), and Rs. 2417 crores (2016), respectively (Singh, 2019). It was estimated that farmers in India suffer direct losses of over 50,000 crores per year as a result of diseases that may be completely avoided with immunization. The government of India, along with state governments, spends an equal amount of money on vaccination against these diseases, resulting in a loss of nearly one lakh crore rupees due to non-reporting diseases, substandard vaccines, ineffective vaccination, and lack of education of livestock farmers etc. (Singh, 2019).

7. Inadequate veterinary facility in dairy sector

The Indian dairy sector is suffering due to inadequate infrastructure facility. The National Commission on Agriculture (NCA)-1976 recommended that one veterinary institution be established for every 5,000 cattle units (one cattle unit =1 cow / 1 buffalo /10 sheep / 10 goats / 5 pigs / 100 poultry) to maintain effective veterinary health care. According to VCI, India has 67651 veterinarians, while demand is between 1.1 to 1.2 lakh. As a result of this inadequacy, farmers received poor and insufficient veterinary services. From 1970 onward, India started to use Artificial Insemination (AI), as a reproductive technology in order to improve cattle breeds and milk production. However, in the last fifty years, due to several constraints, the average conception rate through AI is not going beyond 30-40 percent at field level.

8. Inadequate extension services

Providing technical services to animals, supplying technical inputs, and educating livestock farmers are the three components of livestock service delivery to the farmers. The provision of animal health services includes vaccination, deworming, breeding and disease management, vaccines, medicines, semen, AI guns, syringes and needles, etc., have to be provided as technical inputs. In order to obtain the above services and, to a certain extent, to obtain technical inputs, livestock farmers must rely on vets or para-vets. Thirdly, livestock farmers need to be educated on various animal husbandry managements viz. feeding, vaccination, disease management, breeding, etc. unfortunately, this component is grossly neglected. In addition to transfer of technology and strengthening of various infrastructure and support services, extension services need to focus on building the capabilities of the farmers.

Although the Indian dairy sector is performing well despite the above challenges, they need to be addressed to satisfy the rising demand for dairy products.

Strategies to improve sustainable dairy farming in India

1. Round the year fodder production:

The availability of sufficient feed and fodder for livestock is important to increasing dairy production. In the country, there is a significant imbalance between demand and supply of fodder, especially during lean seasons and natural disasters such as droughts and floods. It is estimated that the fodder crop area constitutes only 4% of the total cropping area, and has remained static over the last four decades. Hence, we need to adapt the practice of using land for multiple crops in a sustainable manner. Fodder availability for livestock can be substantially increased by adopting Silvi-pastoral and Horti-pastoral models suitable to the area. The country is covered by more than 29 million ha of open forests with less than 0.4 canopy density, which can be cultivated with fodder trees. This extensive land resource can be used to cultivate fodder, without damaging existing trees. The non-cropped areas of agricultural land which are not cultivated are emphasized as well, including bunds, pond embankments, slopes of nala courses that can be used for cultivation of fodder crops.

High yielding fodder varieties, including dual purpose grains like bajra, maize, and jowar, Berseem, cowpea, oats, etc., are essential for increasing productivity. Emphasis should also be directed on the availability of short-term seeds and dual-purpose crops that may be utilized in the event of a drought or flood to provide fodder in a timely manner. Most farms can benefit from crop rotation as well as the adoption of suitable crop combinations in order to take advantage of their potential. For example, crop combinations in different season follow in ICAR-NDRI, ERS-Kalyani, West Bengal for round the year fodder production are given in table

Table 2: Season wise fodder crop production in ICAR-NDRI, ERS-Kalyani, West Bengal

Season	Fodder crop combination
Winter (December–January)	Berseem + Mustard + Maize + Mustard + Oats + Sorghum + Hybrid Napier Grass
Spring (February),	Berseem + Oats + Para Grass
Summer (March– May)	Berseem + Oats + Hybrid Napier Grass + Para Grass + Maize+ cowpea + Sorghum
Monsoon (June–September)	Maize + Sorghum + Hybrid Napier Grass + Guinea Grass + Maize+ cowpea
Post-monsoon (November–December)	Berseem + Mustard + Maize + Oats + Hybrid Napier Grass + Para Grass

 

2. Improvement of germplasm:

India has the world’s highest number of cattle and buffalo population, but the production of per animal is very low, especially as compared with developed countries. Through the genetic improvement of indigenous dairy animals, the level of milk production can be improved. To improve animal genetics, artificial insemination programs should be implemented at all farmers’ doorsteps, and selective breeding can be initiated to target high-producing animals. To improve the genetic potential of desi cows, a cross-breeding program should be introduced. The indigenous buffalo and cattle can be ‘grading up’ with high milk producing breeds through successive generations. Technology such as multiple ovulation and embryo transfer (MOET), in vitro fertilization (IVF) and cloning, sexed semen technology, and marker-assisted selection (MAS) were introduced later to achieve new heights.

3. Dairy based integrated farming system (IFS):

In IFS model dairy, crops, horticulture, poultry, fodder and different components in the system complement each other in terms of utilization of resources generated within the farm (Fig.1).

Fig 1. Model of Dairy Based integrated farming system

Farm labour who depends on agriculture, remain unemployed for 1/3rd of the year, because farm operations engage them in cropping season, while they remain unemployed during off season. However, the Dairy based IFS model helps in gaining handful of employment to the farmer due to maintenance of diverse enterprises which are linked to each other, resulting in more labour employment (man days). When compared to the traditional system, integration with diverse in the dairy-based farming increased the labour requirement which helped the farmers to get employment year-round and providing opportunities for employment to family labour even in lean periods.

4. Modernization of Dairy farming:

Agriculture and the dairy sector have been modernized (industrialized) over the worldwide as a result of urbanization and globalization. Agriculture increasingly depends on mechanization and automation as a result of the migration of people away from farms and rural villages and into urban areas in order to get the higher income. The modernization of dairy farms results in the implementation of sanitary and quality requirements, as well as the use of standardized handling equipment on the farm, such as containers made of stainless steel. Larger and more sophisticated dairy processing facilities impose requirements on milk producers to increase quality and volume. Consequently, modernization of dairy farms and processing specialization lowers the cost of dairy products for urban customers. By using modernized equipment, all stalls and loose housing facilities will be cleaned, bedded, and managed by collecting debris from bedding surfaces, tending to bedding substrates, and providing fresh bedding material when necessary.

5. Facilities to Improve the Health and Welfare of dairy animals:

Confinement facilities impede natural behaviors, limit estrus expression, and contribute to lameness and other health issues that impact cattle’s welfare. During the same estrus, cows learn to behave differently on concrete than on natural surfaces; for example, they display fewer standing and mounting actions while on concrete than on dirt. In the future, cow confinement facilities should be designed and constructed in such a way so that natural behavior of cows can expressed fully. Sensor based lameness detection can be utilize for detection of lameness earlier than with manual scouring methods. There will be facilities to allow cows and calves to interact for a longer period of time after birth.

6. Education and Training of dairy farmer:

Extension services should focus on building the farmers’ capabilities to care for their animals and crops, as well as transferring technology and strengthening infrastructure and support services. In order to become a successful dairy entrepreneur, an individual must be educated and well trained, as an educated person will easily learn and accept new technologies. To increase production, farmers must be educated on advanced techniques.

7. Role of veterinarian:

In most states, veterinarians are called Veterinary Officer (VO) or Veterinary Assistant Surgeon (VAS) rather than Livestock Development Officer (LDO), which restricts their role in livestock development and building farmer’s capacities. As a result, in India the role of veterinarians in livestock production is insufficiently explored. As veterinarians, we are supposed to educate farmers on scientific management practices, sustainable livestock farming, ways to meet the shortage of animal feed and fodder, marketing of livestock, processing of livestock products, environmental concerns associated with livestock, and social entrepreneurship development.

Conclusion

India has an abundance of genetic resources for dairy animals, both in terms of population and diversity. After independence, we have come a long way, but farmers are still suffering, and are exploited because of a lack of knowledge. If a farmer in a village is educated and knowledgeable, he or she will set an example for the poor and laggards who are not ready to accept change. Farmers are equipped with the physical power to bring change to villages and countries like India if only they can incorporate the best suitable ideas.

References

1. Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries-DADF (2019). DADF annual report 2018-19. Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, Retrieved from http://dadf.gov.in/sites/default/filess/Annual%20Report.pdf
2. Singh, B. (2019). Proposal for Vaccine and Vaccination Policy for Control of Animal Diseases in India. NCR-Vet. 31. pp. 3-4. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332263494_Proposal_for_Vaccine_and_V accination_Policy_for_Control_of_Animal_Diseases_in_India
3. 20^th Livestock Statistics, Government of India.
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6. https://www.igfri.res.in/cms/Publication/Annual%20Reports/Annual%20Report%202019.pdf

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