Role of Milk and Milk Products For doubling Farmers’ Income
Low capital investment, short operating cycle and steady returns, make dairying a preferred supplementary livelihood option for rural households. As a tool of socio-economic development, it has been contributing to the livelihood of farmers in many ways – income from milk and milk products, insurance against drought, emergency cash requirements, household nutrition, fuel for cooking, manure for crops, draught power for farming and many more.
As per the Situation Assessment Survey (2013) of NSSO, dairying is a supplementary source of income for almost half of the agricultural households. It is noteworthy that that between 2002-03 and 2012-13 (the latest period for which data is available), contribution of “Animal farming” in income of agricultural households grew from 4 per cent to 12 per cent while that of “non-farm activities” and “wages & salaries” had in fact declined. Income from dairying contributes around 84 per cent to the income from “Animal farming”. Considering the relatively higher growth of milk sector during the last five years as compared to agriculture and other allied sectors, there is every reason to believe that the contribution of animal farming and dairying in particular to total income of rural households has significantly grown.
The findings from the NSSO data indicated that the share of income has increased drastically from 5 per cent to 12 per cent in the case of livestock farming, 45 per cent to 48 per cent in crop production, while that of the wages and non-farm have declined between 2003 and 2013.
Animal husbandry is the most important component of Indian agriculture supporting livelihood of more than two-thirds of the rural population especially marginal, small and landless farmers (Singh et al., 2018). There is immense scope in animal husbandry which can help in doubling farmer’s income. In the case of livestock, improvement in herd quality, better feed, increase in artificial insemination, reduction in calving interval and lowering age at first calving are the potential sources of growth. In animal husbandry, the dairy sector has always played an important role (Saxena et al., 2002). Doubling farmer’s income by 2025 is quite challenging but it is needed and is attainable. This is quite evident from the words of Nanda Kumar, Chairman National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) that “Doubling farmers’ income is impossible without dairy farming. Dairy farming has become a commercial enterprise now and not only provides nutrition but also helps farmers to improve their economic condition and welfare. Major source of income for farmers is through sale of milk along with milk products and sale of dairy animals itself.
Current Dairy Scenario
Agriculture contributes 17 % of India’s total gross domestic product (GDP) out of which livestock sector contributes highest, around 25.6% and thereby contributing 4.11 % to total GDP during 2012-13. The livestock sector is being considered as one of the promising sector for enhancing farmer’s income. Dairying contributes significantly to the livestock sector in terms of share in gross value added and animal population. The dairy farming in India has shown remarkable development in the past decade and India has now become world largest producers of milk accounting for 20% of world production. In 2016-17 India producing 163.7 million tonnes of milk with the growth rate of 5.3 % providing per capita availability of 352 gram/day (BAHS, 2017). As per 19th livestock census India possesses about 118.59 million milch dairy animals, cattle and buffalo account for 37.28% and 21.23% of the livestock population with 190.90 and 108.70 million in numbers respectively. According to estimates of the Central Statistics Office (CSO, 2015-16), the value of output livestock sector at current prices was about 5,91,691 crore which is about 28.5% of the value of output from agricultural and allied sector. At constant prices the value of output from livestock is about 29% of the value of the output from total agriculture and allied sector (DAHDF, 2016-17). Within Livestock sub-sector, dairying constitutes the major share about 67% in value of outputs from agriculture (Jaiswal et al., 2018). Livestock sector provides employment to 8.8% of population which largely comprises of landless and unskilled population.
Envisaged Dairy Industry by 2025
The milk production envisaged to be 254.55 Million MT by 2021-22 and 300 Million MT by 2023-24 from existing 163.7 Million MT and will be requiring an annual growth rate of 9.2%. This would lead to increase in per capita availability of milk from current level of 352 grams/day to 515 and 592 grams/day in 2021-22 and 2023-24 respectively. To achieve the desired milk production targets, average In-milk animal productivity would also be required to grow annually at the rate of 4.7% to 6.14 Kg/day by 2021-22 and 6.7 Kg/day by 2023-24. It has been envisaged that by the end of 2021-22 and 2023-24 the surplus milk available with farmer will be 60% of total production (NAP vision 2022)
Significance of Dairy Farming in India
India is not only the largest milk producer, but also is one of the fastest growing and lowest cost milk producers in the world. The characteristic feature of an indian dairy industry is that it is rural based and large amount of milk production comes from small milk producers (Gangasagare and Karanjkar, 2009). Dairying in India is an occupation of small farmers and about half of the rural population own milch animals. More than 70 million rural households engaged in milk production, the majority being small and marginal farmers (Hemme et al., 2015). It provides regular income to the livestock farmers through sale of milk. Nearly 70% of agriculture farmers double up as dairy farmers, and keep a large part of the milk they get for their own consumption (CII, 2017). Indian dairying has a large and growing domestic market in which the consumption of milk has been rising proportionate with increase in the purchasing power of people. As per 66th round of the NSSO, milk and milk product commanded a share of 7.6 % and 6.9% of consumer expenditure in rural and urban India respectively. Livestock in general and dairying in particular play a vital role in the Indian economy and also in the socio-economic development of millions of rural households.
Income of an Indian farmer
In India around 70% farmers are marginal (owning less than one hectare), and 77% of them earn even a miserable income of Rs.6,067 per capita a year (Paroda, 2018). Further, animal holding has been found to be more equitable as compared to land holding as 85% of the Indian farmers, who are marginal and small, own only 45% of farm land but 75% of bovines (Planning commission Report, 2007-2012). According to “Situation Assessment Survey”, the livestock sector contributes significantly to rural income about 26 % in case of the poorest households and about 12% in case of overall rural income. Doubling real income of farmers till 2022-23 requires annual growth of 10.41% in farmer’s income. As per NSSO (70th Round) for agricultural households, 63.5% income comes from cultivation, 3.7% from livestock, 1% from other agricultural activity, 4.7% from non-agricultural enterprises, 22% from salaried employment, 1.1% from pension, 3.3% from remittances and 0.7% from others. The economic Survey of India 2017-18 tabled in Parliament indicates that over a period of 10 years, the share of income of farmers from crop production increased by only 1% while it increased by 7% for livestock.
Drivers Enhancing Income from Dairy Farming
1. Processed Milk Products: Proper utilization of dairy-product has direct impact on the economy condition of the farmers. If the daily amount of fresh milk is limited, it is more economical to process the milk into less perishable products, store them and sale later in larger quantities. Generally the price of processed milk products is high as compared to raw milk. If a farmer is reluctant to sale the milk because of getting lower price then he can take initiative to sale processed dairy products such as ghee, paneer, curd, butter etc. Sometimes, there may not be availability of market nearby so in such cases sale of preserved products may bring greater financial gain.
2. Increased Consumer: Today the dairy world is serving over 7 billion consumers and providing livelihoods for approximately 1 billion people which either live on dairy farms (Hemme et al., 2015). The growing demand for milk and milk products offers opportunities for smallholders to enhance their income by increasing the efficiency of their milk production (Kumar et al., 2014)
3. Dairy Wastes: Saving money is a kind of earning money. Cow dung has been considered as a Gold Mine, along with cow urine it can be used as fertilizer in the field of agriculture and energy resource to save money. Besides, cow dung can be used in making money from Panchgavya, Gau-mutra ark, various medicines and cosmetics. In addition to that government of India implemented Gobar Dhan scheme, the online trading of cow dung is one of the way to generate wealth from cow dung. These wastes are not just wastes, it adds to the economy of farmers to a large extent.
4. Value Addition in the Dairy Sector: According to the report of agriculture ministry of India (2017), only 20% of the total milk production is converted into value-added products (VAP) and the aim is to take this to 30% and the value-added products help generate 20% higher income. Further VAP bring in higher profits than raw milk which provides a window passing higher profitability to farmers in form of milk procurement price (NAP vision 2022).
5. Organic Dairy Farming: Organic dairy farming offers numerous opportunities for a developing country like India to increase the income of farmers and earn valuable foreign exchange through quality organic products. Total lactation yield, lactation length and 305 days milk yield were found to be high in organically managed buffaloes (Kamboj et al., 2013) that eventually improve the income of dairy farmers.
6. Integrated Farming System: Integrated farming system which includes dairy sector not only helps in income generation but also provides nutritional security. Integrated farming system provides farmers with immediate cash at the time of need and also during lean season of crop production.
7. Silvopastoral System: Silvopastoral systems are agroforestry systems that intentionally combine livestock production with rotational grazing. It has been reported that there was 80- 130% increase in return after four year of silivopastoral system stabilization (Reyes et al., 2017)
8. Milk Cooperatives: Milk production activity takes place on individual farms of different sizes in India. This characteristic of milk production system along with perishable nature of milk is a matter of great concern. In the interests of livelihood and economic well-being of the milk producers, it is essential to provide rural milk producers with greater access to the cooperative milk. The role of dairy cooperatives in procurement of milk and providing services to the farmers is remarkable as evident from the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation. The dairy farmers selling the milk to dairy cooperatives get fair price of their product. The cooperatives also provide financial security and give the money to farmers at certain intervals. Over 60% of close to 11 million farmer members in about 100,000 village milk cooperatives all over the country are small, marginal and even landless producers (Jaiswal et al., 2018). Currently, on average producers pour about 2.8 litre of milk per day at dairy cooperative society and earns a gross income of Rs.85/day. However, feeding cost itself comprises of about 70% of the total milk price. Overall, farmer earns 20-30 % of milk price as net daily income which comes about Rs.516/month (NAP vision, 2022).
9. Breeding Policy: India has been made efforts to increase milk production through selection and cross-breeding of non-descript and low producing cattle with exotic germplasm. Door step delivery of artificial insemination as well as conservation and improvement of indigenous cattle and buffalo breeds has been improving productivity and cost efficiency in dairy farming and income of farmers.
10.National Action Plan: Government of India initiated National Action Plan to create infrastructure for handling of increased milk production to meet the demand of milk and milk products and help in achieving the objective of doubling the farmers’ income.
11. Increased Women’s Economic Empowerment: Women play a significant role in dairy production. They undertake a range of dairy management tasks, including feeding livestock, cleaning cowsheds, looking after calves, milking, milk processing and marketing. As per Agriculture situation in India (2017) the strength of women in Dairy has reached to the 70% of the total work force (about 44 lakh) of which 3,60,000 women are in leadership roles in village dairy cooperatives and 380 women on the boards of Union and State Federations.
12. Livestock Extension Services: The livestock extension services enable farmers to identify and analyse their production problems thereby increase income. It has been found that the net income has increased by 80% when farmers used livestock extension services (Dinani et al., 2018).
Issues in Doubling Farmer’s Income
Livestock diseases like FMD, BQ, HS and mastitis acts as negative influence on the production system results, low income. Mastitis is considered as major economic important disease in India, according to one study the total annual economic losses due to mastitis was calculated is 7165.51 crore rupees (Bansal and Gupta, 2009). Inadequate quantity and quality of feeds affects dairy farming system. As per estimate the deficit of dry fodder, concentrates and green fodder currently is 10, 33 and 35 % (Planning commission, 2012) respectively. Low productivity of milk animals, poor access to breeding, seasonality in production, limited use of manufactured cattle feeds, lack of good quality animal husbandry and farming practices, animal health and credit services and high cost of Artificial Insemination (AI) services are the other issues.
Indian Dairy Industry – SWOT Analysis:
Strengths :
Milk is the costliest in India when compared to other dairying countries, (b) increasing purchasing power day by day due to elevated disposable income, (c) demand of milk and milk products are increasing day by day, (d) vast cattle population (about >25% cow and >50% buffalo) vis-à-vis world, (e) comparatively lower labour cost , (f) no dearth of quality manpower, (g) cheap crop residue/agriculture products and (i) predominantly A2 genetic variant buffalo and Indian cow breed vis-à-vis their western counterpart.
Weaknesses :
(a) Low yielding animals, (b) poor infrastructure/power situation in villages, (c) not so modern milk collection system, (d) inadequate milk quality, (e) inadequate modern cattle rearing/management system, (f) inadequate cold chain management system and (g) wide species-wise variation in milk yield
Opportunities :
(a) Chance of enormous job creation in dairying, (b) greater investment opportunity in dairy field, (c) greater export potential, (d) transformation of village economy, (e) opportunity of popularizing ethnic sweetmeats & Indian dairy products and (f) great contributor to GDP
Threats :
(a) Pressure on grazing land and water source, (b) erosion of indigenous robust breed through indiscriminate cross-breeding, (c) unscupulous middlemen tinkering with milk quality and profitability of farmers, (d) lack of better awareness among farmer about quality parameters of milk, (e) increased methane gas production : global warming threat and (f) adulteration (such as synthetic milk) is the biggest menace.
Farmers’ Income – contribution by dairying :
some statistics: Employment generation by agriculture in rural India is 48.9%. Contribution of agriculture and allied sector including dairying is 18.1%. CAGR of agriculture and allied sector is 4.1%. Milk contributes more than onefifth of the agricultural products and contributes 70% of the livestock value outputs. Four-point action plan by Government to augment farmers’ income : (a) Remunerative prices to farmers ; (b) Raising productivity of animals ; (c) Reforming agricultural policy and (d) Relief measures to farmers (a) Farmers’ Income : Remunerative prices to farmers : Two broad measures are recommended : i. Marketing reforms : Best available model most presumably is India’s largest co-operative Amul’s four-tier (VCS-DCS-State Federation – National Federation) model. This has been proved to be the most efficient and transparent model for success in dairy business removing unscrupulous middlemen to take advantage of the situation. One way, there are many farmer-producers producing milk in small amounts scattered over a large area to keep the supply chain intact at a fair price all round the year without any disruption. The farmers also get bonus for their loyality apart from the price of basic milk they pour. On the other hand, consumers are getting products at reasonable and affordable price which has created a “win-win” situation for both the farmers (value for many) and the consumers (value for money). ii. Minimum Support Price (MSP): The existing co-operative (Amul) model has MSP built in it considering single-axis pricing for buffalo milk and double-axis system for cow milk. The system encourages the concept of price vis-à-vis quality that promotes the concept : “the better the quality, better is the price”. This not only ensures upliftment of quality as a whole but also creates enthusiasm among farmers to go for quality dairying. (b) Farmers’ Income – raising productivity : Problem : Too many low yielding milch animals hamper the national productivity. There is drastic need of genetic improvemnet of cattle and average Fat/SNF increase in the resultant milk. Average annual yield of Indian cattle is 1172 kg which is 50% of the world average. A lot of co-ordination and support are needed from Government in selection of breed, proper nutritional management, animal healthcare management – to improve animal productivity and income of the farmers. A proper co-ordination is needed among planners, researchers, ICAR-SAUs-KVKs, animal science and agricultural universities, business entities, co-operative dairies, milk federations etc. to help farmers to multiply their income and prosperity. (c) Farmers’ Income : agricultural policy : Major problem : Proper policy of land-holding to animal rearing will have to be formulated as majority of the country’s population is highly dependent on agriculture. High-yielding varieties of fodder cultivation and distribution of seeds among farmers at an affordable price or developing alternative feed, like azola-cultivation, may also be promoted in search of cheap source of high-protein feed, as animal feeding constitutes the lion’s share of milk price. ICAR and SAUs should develop models of farming system for different types of socio-economic and bio-physical settings combining all their technologies in a package with focus on farm income. (d) Farmers Income – relief to farmers: Several relief measures have been suggested to elevate farmers income. These are: A. Exemption of dairy farming from income tax: Milk is nutritionally excellent, balanced with fat, protein, mineral, carbohydrates and fat-soluble vitamins as well as water-soluble vitamins alongwith bio-active peptides. It is an excellent natural nutraceutical and must be poromoted for food and health security as a holistic approach. It has been experienced that return per unit of land for dairying is much better than that of crop. B. Availability of proper funding : Milk is produced in India by 60% landless and marginal farmers. Government must take some positive steps towards funding this potentially vibrant sector by funding via nationalized banks, rural banks, NBFCs, NABARD etc. through soft loans to promote dairying as a livelihood of the farmers and double their income. C. Improving infrastructure, road, rail, power etc. : Even after seven decades of Independence, difficult terrain, inadequate road condition, erratic power situation, onslaught of drought and flood, remoteness of collecting villages from processing units, difficult transportation etc. pose challenges against milk procurement. Proper planning with respect to develop rural infrastructure like road, electrification, affordable house, transportation of milk and agricultural produce will have to be developed on war-footing. D. Proper insurance of animals and crops : Proper insurance plan will have to be formulated to provide adequate risk coverage for the huge livestock resource which is a potential source of income for the farmers. They should be immuned from sudden calamities like epidemics, flood, drought etc. Presently insurance coverage in livestock sector is abysmally low (only 6%). 4. India – land of possibilties: (a) Milk production : More than all EEC countries, 165.7 Million Tonnes (2016-17) as compared to 55.6 Million Tonnes (1991-92). (b) Cattle population : Cattle population, particularly, buffalo population is half the world’s population (around 57%). Buffalo Milk powder from India demands premium in international dairy trade due to more protein content in it. Moreover, it is an excellent raw material for khoa, paneer and mozzarella cheese. (c) Joint OECD-UN-FAO Agricultural outlook : It has been revealed that the most of India’s milk is consumed as fresh milk. This shows milk production and consumption is the fastest one and revenue generation is also fast due to minimum gestation period. (d) Number of farmers in India: 75 million (i.e. 7 crores and 50 lac). This is a very positive side of the economy because the base of production is wide. If a farmer increases his/her income, by double/triple or quadruple, his/her income will also grow likewise. 5. Growth-driving factors of Indian dairy industry : Indian dairy industry is fast changing due to the following reasons: (i) Demographic changes : 1. Population growth 2. Urbanization 3. Economic growth 4. Rising income level (ii) Changes in Food habits : 1. Fast-changing food habit 2. Increasing demand for instant food 2. Requirement of ready to eat (RTE) food due to more number of working women 3. Demand of fast food 4. Demand of modified food (iii) Emergence of wellness industry : 1. Health Foods (nutraceuticals) 2. Value-added foods 3. Functional foods (iv) Changes in manufacturing and packaging : Technological innovations and productivity in : a. Processing b. Packaging c. Automation 6. Increasing farmers’ income, how ? If we calculate farmers’ income from the lowest level of Rs. 5000 and as high as Rs. 45000 (considering the poorest in North-east and wealthiest in North India), doubling of this income is possible @19% per annum in compounded form (excluding other factors like inflation etc.) as follows: Ways to double farmers’ income : a) Increasing gross income b) Stabilizing income and c) Reducing costs a) Increasing gross income : (i) Improving productivity (ii) Better market price realization (iii) Special policy measures b) Stabilizing income : Continuous assured marketing of dairy produce and no disruption either through cooperative and private dairies and their procurement system or aligning with MFS (model format stores), private entrepreneurship, contract farming, sweet hubs etc. are possible avenues to stabilize farmers’ income. Both central and state governments will have to create such ready market for farmers round the year. c) Reducing Cost : It is the best way to increase income by efficiently removing the non-value added steps from the dairy farming activities, improved breed and high yielding animals, reducing feed and fodder cost (promoting alternate feed like azola-cultivation), improvized nutrition and hard management system, etc. to reduce input costs drastically. d) Integration and diversification: Farmers’ income may be integrated into agriculture and animal husbandry if proper deversification is done to create win-win situation. Integrated farming (like dairy-piggery-fishery-valueadded product) combination may be promoted to boost income. Indian traditional dairy products are grossly categorised into the following way: Ø Heat-desiccated: a. Rabri b. Basundi c. Kulfi d. Khoa Khoa-based sweets i. Burfi ii. Peda iii. Kalakand iv Gulabjamun v. Khurchan vi. Dharwad Peda vii Kunda Ø Acid-heat coagulated : a.Chhana-based sweets i. Rasogolla ii. Pantooa iii. Sandesh iv Rasomalai v. ChamCham vi. Chhana-murki vii. Chhana podo viii. Milk cake a. Paneer Ø Fat-rich products: a. Ghee b. Malai c. Makkhan Ø Cultured products : a. Dahi b. Mishti Doi c. Lassid. Chhach/Mattha e. Chakka à i) Shrikhand ii) Shrikhand Wadi Ø Milk-based puddings/sweets/desserts a. Kheer b. Payasam c. Pal Payasam d. Phirni e. Ghevar f. Sevian g. Sohan Halwa h. Gajar-halwa i. Cashew Burfi.
Dairy Cooperatives
It is a matter of pride for all of us that India has been the largest milk producing country in the world for well over two decades. The journey of Indian dairy sector from the situation of deficit in 1950s and 1960s to the situation of self-sufficiency in the decade following 1970s has seen various dairy development interventions. Operation Flood, Perspective Plan, National Dairy Plan and other programmes of Central and State Governments have collectively made the country self-reliant in milk production.
In this journey from deficit to sufficiency, Dairy Cooperatives, representing mostly the small holders, have played a leading role by continuously striving to augment incomes and livelihoods of rural milk producers and by supplying safe milk to consumers. The Dairy Cooperatives give back about 75 per cent of the realisation to the farmers, who own and control the cooperatives, while globally only about 30-40 per cent of the consumer price goes back to the farmers.
Status of Indian Dairying
In the last four and half decades, milk production grew eight-fold, from about 22 million tonnes in 1970-71 to 176.35 million tonnes in 2017-18. With about 95 per cent of dairy animals’ owner owning less than 5 animals, dairying in India is primarily a small holder system.
The growth in milk production has outpaced the growth in the population and food grain production, resulting in continuous growth in the per capita availability of milk from 112 grams per day in 1970-71 to about 374 grams per day in 2017-18 and thus contributing towards the nutritional security of our nation.
Challenges
While we should definitely take pride in the progress of our dairy industry during the last five decades, we need to appreciate the fact that the dairy sector today is witnessing a host of challenges and ‘business as usual’ may not lead us in sustaining the gains of the past decades and continue to make dairying a remunerative activity.
The factors which are impacting the sustainability of dairying include challenges associated with low productivity of milch animals, natural resources constraints, rising feed/fodder costs, lack of access to organised market and institutional credit, price volatility due to integration with the global market, ageing processing infrastructure, lack of awareness on scientific animal management, animal healthcare, shift to non-dairy activities with relatively less drudgery, especially by the younger generation, adverse impact of climate change etc. These challenges can only be addressed by adoption of innovative technologies and approaches in a way that contributes to enhance farmers’ income and promotes dairying as a sustainable livelihood option for them.
Food Aid for Development and Cooperative Strategy
One of the remarkable innovations during Operation Flood programme was using “Food Aid” as an investment to promote development of our domestic dairy sector. If the commodity aid we received were used for consumption, in all probability our country may have continued to be import dependent even today like many other Asian and South Asian countries.
The other remarkable innovation was consciously choosing the cooperative strategy for promoting dairying in our country. You will agree that cooperative strategy in our smallholders dominated dairy structure was the most appropriate strategy to provide market access to millions of small milk producers along with a remunerative price for their produce.
Today our dairy industry faces different sets of challenges and making it efficient and sustainable requires adoption of innovative approaches across the dairy value chain in the form of introducing new technologies, innovative techniques, new product and process development, alternative organisational structures etc.
Productivity Enhancement through Genetic Progress
Dairying in our country will be globally competitive only if animal productivity increases to at least match the global average, if not close to the best in the world. While expansion of AI coverage would certainly contribute to increase productivity, we need to recognise the urgency of adopting Advanced Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) to accelerate the genetic progress to increase productivity, production and return to farmers. These ARTs include –
- a) Use of sex sorted semen in our AI programmes to produce only female calves. However, high cost of getting the required semen doses from the existing technology which is patented by one or two breeding companies restricts its widespread application in our country. Therefore, we need to continue our R&D efforts to indigenise the technology which would be both breed and species neutral and more affordable to the farmers.
- b) Use of genomic application in our selection programmes has immense potential to expedite the genetic progress, as we have seen in the case of dairy developed countries. I am glad to say that for the first time, NDDB has developed an indigenous chip namely, INDUSCHIP, for genotyping our indigenous breeds of cattle and their crosses for genomic selection. We are also in the process of developing similar genotyping chip for buffaloes in the next few months. Use of genomics will increase the accuracy of our animal selection programme and help in expediting productivity enhancement of our milch herd.
- c) Ovum pick-up and In-vitro Embryo production technology is a powerful tool for introducing superior germplasm in our milch animal herd at a much faster rate and thereby shortening the period of genetic progress. This technique provides the opportunity to harvest large number of embryos from elite donors at less cost. NDDB has established a state-of-the-art OPU–IVF lab at Anand and we have already started seeing the results. Our objective is to develop this centre as a Centre of Excellence which would train large number of technicians and professionals in our country. We need to commercialise IVF embryo transfer and the day is not far off when embryo transfer using IVF technology would replace conventional AI on a large scale thereby speeding up productivity enhancement.
- d) Although our scientists in NDRI have demonstrated the use of cloning technology to produce high genetic merit animals, much more collaborative effort needs to be made both by the scientists in NDRI and veterinary universities to commercialise this ART, notwithstanding the ethical issues involved. Apart from this, the ART of producing synthetic gametes, which is at a nascent stage of development on which Department of Biotechnology has already initiated work, has the potential to produce very large and theoretically infinite number of embryos from embryonic stem cells of the most elite animals. This can bring about significant level of productivity enhancement in our herd. These technologies can be game changers in bringing about productivity enhancement of our indigenous breeds in a very short period, which will benefit the dairy farmers significantly.
- e) By end of the National Dairy Plan Phase I (NDP I), annual requirement from all the semen stations for High Genetic Merit Bulls of different breeds would be met through Progeny Testing and Pedigree Selection Programme. This will certainly go a long way in improving the productivity of the future generations of milch animals.
- f) All these breed improvement programmes covering AI, bull production, embryo production and transfer, transfer of sex sorted semen etc., would need robust data recording systems to analyse impacts, assess reproductive efficiencies etc. These ICT based systems would help the breeding agencies and service providers to improve their performance, which would in turn directly benefit the farmers.
Ensuring Healthier Animals
Healthcare and management of animals is important, particularly when animals are maintained in small herds. Majority of dairy farmers in our country are small or marginal who find it difficult to afford a veterinarian or bear the treatment charges when their animals fall sick. In order to mitigate this, NDDB has been propagating the concept of Ethno Veterinary Medicine (EVM) for 14 major ailments in bovines. This offers a very cost-effective, easy and effective option to the farmers to manage these ailments including mastitis with ingredients which are usually available locally. Use of EVM will result in reduced use of drugs and antibiotics and thereby help to reduce the incidence of antimicrobial resistance which is a serious public health concern today.
For bringing about sustainable solutions to animal health issues faced by the farmers, NDDB has been pioneering pilot projects on field models for treating economically important diseases like mastitis, brucellosis, etc. These innovative approaches towards ensuring healthier animals for milk producers need to be widely implemented throughout the country with the support from State Animal Husbandry Departments and Veterinary Universities/ Research Institutions.
Improving Animal Productivity through Scientific Nutritional Technologies
It is well known that the “feed cost” in our country accounts for about 70 per cent of total cost of milk production. Thus, any reduction in cost of feeding by optimising feed utilisation efficiency results in augmenting dairy farmers’ income.
Ration Balancing Programme (RBP) under National Dairy Plan- Phase I covering about 2.8 million milch animals has successfully demonstrated that feeding balanced ration to milch animals results in improved milk yield and increase in net income of farmers by Rs.15-25 per day.
With increased pressure on land for production of food crops, advanced fodder production and conservation technologies are required to be adopted in large scale. NDDB has been promoting use of high yielding varieties of certified/truthfully labelled fodder seeds for increasing the productivity of fodder crops. Simultaneously field demonstrations have been organised for securing available biomass through variety of auto and manual mowers, its conservation through silage making and storage in biomass storage silos. These technologies have now been widely adopted by the farmers and many entrepreneurs are also taking this forward as a business enterprise.
Under NDP I, apart from establishment of five fodder seed production plants, two crop residue enrichment and densification plants have also been established for increasing the nutritive value and its transportation from surplus area to deficit area.
All these feed and fodder innovations will greatly contribute in reducing feed cost, increasing productivity and returns to farmers.
Creating Efficient Dairy Infrastructure
Most of the milk processing infrastructure with the producer owned institutions were commissioned during the Operation Flood period and many of these plants have not been modernised or expanded thereafter. These age old plants need to be modernised/ expanded and new processing infrastructure with energy efficient technology need to be created for reducing the processing cost and manufacturing of quality milk & milk products.
The recently launched Dairy Processing & Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) scheme announced by Government of India in December 2017 with the total outlay of Rs. 10881 crore will facilitate modernisation and expansion of these ageing dairy plants. The scheme envisages creating additional processing capacity of about 126 Lakh litres per day and value added products (VAP) capacity of 4,600 MTPD. The dairy cooperatives are provided loan at a concessional interest rate of 6.5 per cent with interest subvention from Government of India. Other similar projects are also in different stages of finalisation which would contribute towards building a more efficient dairy infrastructure.
Government of India is also providing financial support to private processors for creation/ expansion of processing and preservation capacities, integrated cold chain and value added infrastructure etc., under the umbrella Scheme- Agro – Marine Processing and Development of Agro -Processing Clusters (SAMPADA) being implemented with the allocation of Rs. 6000 crore.
The efforts to modernise the dairy processing sector are being combined with innovative technologies for process automation, utilisation of non-conventional sources of energy, integrated recovery systems, reduction in losses, savings in utility consumption like steam, chilled water, electricity etc. These would lead to efficient plant operations, reduced cost of operations and improved operational safety and hence better returns to the dairy farmers.
Over the last few years, NDDB has taken up various initiatives to enhance usage of solar energy across the dairy value chain in partnership with Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and other stakeholders from Industry and academia. Extensive use of solar energy in dairy value chain would not only reduce operational cost significantly but also ensure use of clean energy. NDDB has initiated the implementation of Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST) technology in 15 dairy processing plants which are meeting up to 15 per cent of the annual thermal demand in these dairies.
At the village dairy cooperative level, our experiment with solar PV systems with GRID connectivity and storage facility to address exigencies like long power outages has resulted in significant savings. To propagate such usages, installation of 125 systems across the country has been facilitated under NDP I as a pilot which need to be further scaled up. The other avenues for clean energy being explored include setting up solar PV systems with GRID connectivity and storage facility at village dairy cooperative societies, solarising village bulk chilling operations etc. Some of the initiatives have taken a concrete shape and are ready for scaling up while some others are at various stages of experimentation. All these initiatives in using solar energy in dairying would lead to reduction in energy costs, thereby directly benefiting farmers.
Taking Digital Technology to Farmers
The reach of digital technology has immensely increased in the last decade; even in the rural hinterland. The power of digital technology can be harnessed for enabling innovations, scientific systems and systematic processes. The Information Network on Animal Productivity and Health (INAPH) system developed by NDDB has been an important step towards creation of a national animal database. With registration of more than 17.5 million milch animals for providing animal breeding, nutrition and health services to 10.2 million milk producers, this database has created huge opportunities to analyse the impact of animal breeding, nutrition and health interventions to improve on the schemes and quality of service delivery.
Fairness and transparency in the transactions of the producer organisations with the milk producers builds mutual trust and reduces the element of subjectivity in validating the quality and quantity of milk poured by the members thus ensuring better returns to farmers. Integrated Automatic Milk Collection System (AMCS) developed by NDDB is one major step in this direction which ensures fair and transparent operations with the dairy farmers by automation of entire village level milk collection process including its integration for financial inclusion with the provision for payment of milk bills directly to the farmers’ bank accounts.
Quality of Food and Feed
Considering the increased awareness of consumers about the quality of milk in an increasingly competitive dairy market, focus is required to ensure quality of milk and milk products from farm to the retail point.
As a part of the continuous efforts of NDDB to improve food safety and quality aspects of milk and milk products and to enhance consumer confidence in dairy cooperatives, NDDB has recently launched ‘Quality Mark’ for Producer Owned Institutions. This provides dairy cooperatives and producer institutions the much-needed brand identity and a competitive edge.
Apart from its economic significance for the dairy farmers, quality of cattle feed is an important aspect for food safety as contaminants like heavy metals and toxins can be transferred from feed to milk causing health hazards to human population. Currently, there are no specific regulations for monitoring the quality of cattle feed and mineral mixtures produced in the country. Keeping this in mind, NDDB has launched a ‘Quality Mark’ for cattle feed and mineral mixtures manufactured in the cooperative and government/semi-government sectors to be adopted on voluntary basis.
It is needless to mention that with robust quality systems across the dairy value chain- from village to the urban retail outlets, the quality products will fetch better prices with direct benefits accruing to the milk producers.
Human Resource
Success of any business organisation depends on committed, competent and trained human resources in professional, managerial and technical cadres who can drive the organisation towards efficiency and success.
It is very relevant to quote Dr Kurien here.
“Innovation cannot be mandated or forced on people; it is everywhere, a function of the quality of the people and the environment. We need to have enough skilled people working in a self-actuating environment to produce innovation.”
Presently, there has been dearth of qualified and trained professional manpower in dairy sector, especially in the dairy cooperatives, as most of officers associated during OF period have either retired or are on the verge of superannuation. Organisations have realised the importance of devising detailed HR strategies and putting in place qualified professionals to implement their business plans to ensure better returns for their producer members.
Many of the dairy cooperatives do not have the resources to hire competent professionals. In such a scenario, it is more prudent to make investments for extensive training of existing manpower to upgrade their skills. To make rural professionals available to the development sector, this year, NDDB has sponsored the working professionals to participate in a special 15-month course–PGDMX (R) – Executive Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management in IRMA to enhance their management skills.
Increase in Market Access by Organised Sector
It is estimated that out of 6.6 lakh villages in the country, about 3.1 lakh villages are dairy potential villages with estimated milk production of more than 200 Kg per day. With the Producer Owned Institutions, including dairy cooperatives, covering about 2.02 lakh villages, there is huge scope for further expanding the coverage of dairy cooperatives or any other alternate form of producer organisations like Producer Companies to another 1 lakh dairy potential villages.
It is encouraging that in the recent past milk producers from some of the relatively less dairy developed regions like Vidarbha-Marathwada, Jharkhand, Assam and North West Bihar have been provided market access to organised milk processing sector. With implementation of new programmes, which are on the anvil, large number of milk producers who have so far been left out from the organised milk processing sector would start getting benefits of market access which would enhance their income and strengthen their livelihood.
Diversification of Activities
Various innovations to bring about efficiency in the dairy value chain would definitely contribute to enhancing farmers’ income. However, we must also appreciate that for small and marginal farmers, a single source of income from dairying alone may not be adequate to meet their livelihood requirements. We also need to explore alternative income streams through allied activities so that their cumulative income increases.
The interventions undertaken by Sundarban Cooperative Milk & Livestock Producers’ Union Ltd. in the delta region of West Bengal are worth mentioning. This Milk Union with more than 3,000 women members has diversified its operations and is also procuring and marketing other commodities like backyard poultry eggs, mangrove honey, indigenous varieties of rice, moong dal, etc. They are also adopting organic farming practices, which not only provides them access to niche market with higher realisation, but also promotes sustainable agricultural practices.
Scientific beekeeping has been found to be a very promising activity to provide additional income to the dairy farmers by collection and sale of honey and other hive products like Pollen, Beeswax, Propolis, Royal Jelly and Venom. In collaboration with National Bee Board (NBB), NDDB has taken up training/ extension activities for promotion of scientific beekeeping and establishing a value chain for market access. In the recent months, several dairy cooperatives have started marketing honey with their brand, thereby ensuring better returns to the farmers. NDDB has now been designated as one of the implementing agencies in National Beekeeping and Honey Mission and consequently we can expect that many more dairy cooperatives would take up beekeeping and honey procurement and marketing thereby increasing the income of the farmers.
Putting up flexi biogas plant at farmer’s field is another lucrative option for dairy farmers. Multiple benefits would accrue to the farmers like saving in expenditure towards cooking fuel and using slurry as a biofertiliser. This also forms an integral part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan by way of efficient management of manure. NDDB has now been designated as National Level Implementing Agency for two schemes of MNRE namely, New National Biogas and Organic Manure Programme (NNBOMP) and Biogas based power and thermal application programme.
Solar Energy can also be harnessed and harvested as a remunerative crop by farmers. NDDB has helped organising a ‘Solar Pump Irrigators’ Cooperative Enterprises (SPICE) in Mujkuva village near Anand. The farmers have foregone subsidised energy connections and have opted for grid connected solar pumps. This cooperative was inaugurated on 30 September 2018 by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India. Energy buyback option at an attractive Feed-in-Tariff has been an effective tool to rationalise water and energy use by farmers and also providing additional income from the sale of solar energy. NDDB is also in dialogue with MNRE for scaling up this initiative through cooperatives under the (Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthan Mahabhiyan) KUSUM scheme of Government of India, which is on the anvil.
Dairying helps in rising income and employment among rural households. With a good strategy, well designed programmes, adequate resources and government initiatives, the country can achieve the goal of doubling farmer’s income by the year 2025. Strong measures will be needed to harness all possible sources of growth in farmer’s income within as well as outside agriculture sector. Here dairy farming play a significant role in doubling farmer’s income and it needs to maintain an annual growth rate of 5.3 % in milk Production. Farmers should be aware of recent technologies interventions and focus on keeping healthy animals for producing good quality and quantity of milk. Switching over to organic dairy farming and IFS is very good alternative for obtaining additional gains. In order to double the farmer’s income at individual level, it is imperative that in-milk animal productivity is enhanced further, milk price paid to farmers also need to be raised and develop more cooperatives. Thus dairy farming has that untapped potential whose improvement can help achieving the target.
Compiled & Shared by- Team, LITD (Livestock Institute of Training & Development)
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Reference-On Request.
