Despite being world’s largest milk producer with largest cattle population, India’s lags behind in yield

India will look to improve its per animal milk productivity by drawing lessons from advanced nations at the four-day International Dairy Federation World Dairy Summit (IDF WDS 2022), scheduled to be held in New Delhi from September 12.

Currently, the world’s largest milk producer with about 210 million tonnes production per year, India lags behind many advanced countries in dairy productivity. This, according to dairy sector leaders, will be a key takeaway for the country from the three-day Summit that has a theme of “livelihood and nutrition”.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Meenesh Shah, Chairman, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), said, “We are continuously working on improving the productivity of animals. India is the largest milk producer, which is because we have the largest number of animals. (But) On the productivity per animal, we are behind several other countries. We need to increase the productivity of the cattle through collective efforts.”

However, he said over the past few years, India’s dairy sector has achieved remarkable success in improving productivity. “This process needs to continue,” he said.

Announcing the IDF WDS 2022 at Anand, Shah said on September 12- 15, 2022 India will showcase dairy farmers with an average per capita cattle holding of about 3-4 as the foundation of India’s dairy economy against the developed world, which has about 200-400 animals per farm.

RS Sodhi , Managing Director, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets Amul brand of milk products, said the summit, in which about 400 dairy farmers will participate, will showcase how about 1.2 crore members of dairy cooperatives across the country combine together to produce, process and market their milk on a daily basis.

Amul and Nandini (a dairy brand owned by Karnataka Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation Ltd) are the main sponsors of the summit , which is powered by NDDB arm Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetables Pvt Ltd.

BC Sateesh , Managing Director, KMF, said, the Summit will be a platform to encourage the next generation to engage in successful dairying. “At KMF, we have 26 lakh dairy farmers, producing about one crore litres of milk daily and they earn 80 paise from each rupee earned. About 90 per cent of our farmers are small and marginal farmers. This will be a big platform to attract the next generation for dairying.”

As per the NDDB data, India’s daily milk collection is about 12 crore litres from organised players. Of this, about 6 crore litres come from the cooperatives and the rest from private players. GCMMF has a share of about 2.6 crore litres in cooperative space. IDF’s WDS is being held in India after a gap of 48 years with about 1,500 delegates from over 40 countries likely to participate.

Source : The Hindu Business Line Aug 3rd 2022