According to a report in July 2019 by the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, India’s dairy sector grew at a rate of 6.4 per cent annually in the last 4 years, against a global growth rate of 1.7 per cent in the same period.
Now, the Indian government is putting thrust on improving milk productivity per animal. Though India ranks first in production, it is way behind the world average, so far as per animal productivity is concerned. In India, per animal productivity is 1,806 kg in a year, while the world average is 2,310 kg.
Measures Taken
Under the Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM), different modern methods and technological implementations like embryo transfer technology, genomics selection, and creation of facility for sex-sorted semen production are undertaken, which, would definitely help in improving the output.
For detecting adulteration in milk, the department has already approved a plan to strengthen laboratories in 313 dairy plants in India. In addition, a central laboratory has been approved for the cooperative sector for as many as 18 states. In the next phase of the National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD), testing for contaminants or impurities is being considered for village-level cooperative societies. It will develop trust among growers as well as consumers.
In India, around 80 million rural families are engaged in milk production with a large number of them being landless, small and marginal farmers, which is one of the leading causes of low milk productivity per animal.
India accounts for only 0.01 per cent of the global dairy export market. Apart from guaranteeing consumption of safe milk, strengthening laboratories in dairy plants will help in promoting export. Therefore, it is needed that the standards setting bodies such as Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) should be strict in preventing milk adulteration and urge the milk unions not to purchase adulterated milk. Milk unions should remember the welfare of farmers and pay attention to feed and fodder and strengthening infrastructure for quality and clean milk production (CMP).
Milk production in India increased steadily over the years from 55.6 million tonnes in 1991–92 to 176.3 million tonnes in 2017–18, at an average annual growth rate of 4.5 per cent. But there exists wide inter-state variability in milk production. The per capita availability of milk is determined by the production of milk in the state. While the All-India per capita availability of milk is 375 g/day, it varies between 71 g/day in Assam to 1120 g/day in Punjab.