Government to strengthen dairy infra to improve farmer income

The government is working on creating additional milk processing infrastructure to double the dairy farmers’ income by 2022 and meet the future challenges. For about 15 years, India continues to be the largest producer of milk in the world and likely to retain its prime position with annual growth rate of 5.53% for last three years as against global milk production, which is growing at 2.09%.

Indian milk has increased to 163.7 million tonnes in 2016-17 from around 17-22 million tonnes in the 1960s, said the Agriculture ministry in a press statement. It increased by 19% during 2016-17 in comparison to 2013-14. It increased the per capita availability of milk by 14.3% to 351 gram in 2016-17 from 307 gram in 2013-14.

“It is necessary to gradually shift towards a technology-driven environment. To achieve the same, Department of Animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries is working on a National Action Plan Vision 2022 where suitable provisions are being made to build additional milk processing infrastructure for processing additional volume of milk expected on account of higher production and meeting the increased demand for value-added products,” said Agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh while addressing consultative committee meeting on dairy development on Thursday.


He discussed ongoing dairy development projects such as National Dairy Plan Phase I (NDP I), National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD) and Dairy Entrepreneurship Development Scheme (DEDS).

According to Singh, dairy sector provides livelihoods and security net to the landless and marginal farmers with seven crore rural households are engaged in dairying in India. Meanwhile, consumer interest in high protein diets is increasing and growing awareness and availability of value-added dairy products. Singh estimated that value-added products offer 20% higher revenue to farmers and its share is estimated to increase to 30% by 2021-22 from 20% today.

The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) is implementing NDP I through state cooperative milk organisations. NPDD is being implemented through the state government through the co-operative milk organizations of the concerned state. The dairy entrepreneurship scheme is being implemented by National Agricultural and Rural Development Bank through the state government through nationalized banks at the district level.