July 26, 2013

During the last five years, India's milk production has increased by about 25 million tonnes.

This is what chairman of Anand-headquartered National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) Amrita Patel said on Wednesday (Jul 24) while delivering her keynote address at the India Dairy Summit 2013.

The summit inaugurated by Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar in the presence of GC Pati, secretary of Department of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries was held at New Delhi with the theme - sustainable and inclusive solutions towards a second White Revolution.

"Over the last five years, India's milk production has increased by about 25 million tonnes compared to an increase of about 6.6 million tonnes in the US, 5.4 million tonnes in China, 2.7 million tonnes in New Zealand and 1.6 million tonnes in EU," she said.

The NDDB chairman said that among all the tropical countries in the world, India is probably the only country, which has had a steady increase in milk production and emerged as the largest milk producing country.

"This has been achieved by millions of small producers unlike advanced dairy nations which have the advantage of a temperate climate and farms with large animal holdings," she said.

Stressing on the need of inclusiveness and sustainability, Patel said that though India has a large milch animal population and very diverse climatic conditions, the country too can achieve impressive results.

"We need to adopt a scientific approach with the same level of accountability on the part of all stakeholders, as is done in developed countries, following standard operating procedures while implementing high genetic merit bull and semen production and artificial insemination, on the scale that is required across our country. We propose to adopt this approach while implementing the National Dairy Plan for increasing bovine productivity," she said.