National Milk Day : Opportunity & Challenges of Dairy sector in India
Greetings on birth anniversary of Dr. Kurien celebrated as National Milk Day
I believe there are many opportunities & challenges in the dairy industry now. When I joined Dairy Technology Course in 1967 at Anand we had a many problems. Milk was rationed & most of the dairy products were imported.
The present scenario of dairying in India is promising in many ways. The milk production has touched 186 million metric tonnes per annum which continues to place us on number one position in the world. The per capita milk availability in India has reached 400 gms per day against world average of 300 gms and programmes are on way to step up the production commensurate to increasing demands with rising income levels at home.
However, having said this if one thinks that India is fully developed country in terms of dairy development, it is far from truth! We still have to go a long way to increase productivity per milch animal to bring it any closer to international level; create disease-free environment for dairy export purpose; produce much better quality milk for our own people, increase milk processing capacity to produce milk and milk products under total quality management and reach to a much larger segment of our population than ever before. This can be further substantiated by citing the fact that only 30 percent of milk presently produced in India is handled in organised sector which includes all the dairy plants in Co-operative, Government and Private sector. Hence, there is urgent need to increase this percentage to safeguard the health of our children and other consumers by offering them processed milk.
Indian dairy sector is an important source of income for millions of rural families and has the most vital role in providing employment and income-generating opportunities. Indian dairy is an INR 8 Lac Cr. industry with significant potential for growth. Indian dairy industry has grown at 12% during last 5 years, with value added products driving market growth.
Animal husbandry has got Rs. 15000 cr. for the upliftment of the dairy industry to increase productivity of our animals from 1861 kg per year to 3000 kg per year per animal.
With a thrust for better productivity, reduced input cost, and better quality milk and milk product, the competitiveness, and profitability in the Indian dairy sector will get enhanced, leading to improved demand for dairy products in the domestic and international market. It’s also likely to fetch private investments in the sector to lift the growth in rural income as well as employment. The growing demand for different dairy products is expected to provide an opportunity for industry players to expand a range of value-added products. Therefore, in the coming time, the outlook for the dairy sector is favourable on the back of government support, increasing population, per capita consumption, and expenditure on value-added products.
A comprehensive breed improvement marketplace and information portal for direct use of farmers in the form of the E-GOPALA app has been launched by Hon’ble PM on 10th September 2020. E- Gopala app the digital platform is helping farmers in managing livestock including buying and selling of disease free germplasm in all forms (semen, embryos, etc); availability of quality breeding services (Artificial Insemination, veterinary first aid, vaccination, treatment etc) and guiding farmers for animal nutrition, treatment of animals using appropriate ayurvedic medicine/ethno veterinary medicine.
But there is a need to increase the reach of artificial insemination across the country. Presently, artificial insemination coverage is 30 percent countrywide and our target is to reach 100 percent of the cattle population which can breed by the end of five years. Sex-sorted semen technology is one of the breed improvement efforts in cattle and buffalo so that farmers get productive animals. This technology can produce only female calves with more than 90% accuracy by using sexed semen.
I think there are Five key investment opportunities in the dairy sector such as Production and supply of affordable compound cattle feed, Enhancing chilling infrastructure by setting up new BMCs, Setting up processing infrastructure, Enhancing processed milk distribution capacity, Enhancement of direct to consumer milk supply across top consumption hubs.
On birth anniversary & National Milk Day I want to mention that many challenging issues like we are no more lowest cost of milk producing country, productivity of animals, doubling of the income of milk producers, increase the shelf life of the pasteurized milk & improving the breeding, feeding, management & disease control like Foot & Mouth diseases. Also we have to stop negative campaign against milk & milk products.
HAPPY NATIONAL MILK DAY
THINK MILK, DRINK MILK
With Best Regards,
Dr. J. V. Parekh
