'Milk production must grow by 6 mt every year to meet the growing demand'

Union Minister for Agriculture, Radha Mohan Singh, today said that in order to meet the growing milk demand, India’s milk output has to grow by six million tonnes per annum (mtpa) every year for the next 10 years.

Failing to achieve this, the world’s largest milk producer may have to resort to imports, the Minister cautioned.

“Last fiscal, India's milk production increased to over 132 mt. But to meet the growing demand, milk production has to increase by six mt every year for a decade,” the minister said.

“If that doesn’t happen, there will be shortage of milk and India will have to resort to imports,” he said after unveiling the statue of former Chairman of Mehsana’s Dudhsagar Dairy and a noted cooperative leader, Motibhai Chaudhary.

Singh also inaugurated the high-rise residential tower ‘Dudhmotisagar Bhavan’ in Dharuhera near Delhi.

Planning Commission estimates

Giving the milk demand projections, the Minister quoted estimates by the Planning Commission, which had estimated in 2002 that by 2020, milk demand in the country will increase to 166 mt.

The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) had estimated milk demand to cross 180 mt by 2021-22. Also, the per capita availability of milk in India has improved to 296 grams per day, higher than the world average.

Nearly, 2,000 farmers from Gujarat and chairmen of milk cooperatives from Kutch and Surendranagar attended the event.

Milk cooperative model

Farmer leaders from Haryana expressed willingness to replicate the milk cooperative model in the state.

Demanding a preferential treatment to cooperatives, Mehsana Dairy Chairman Vipul Chaudhary noted that dairy product exports need a boost to encourage farmers.

Dairy sector exports

Chaudhary noted that India’s dairy sector exports stood at around Rs 2,000 crore. "With government support, we can achieve second green revolution in place of the pink revolution with meat exports. Last year, the biggest export commodity was meat with exports worth Rs 14,000 crore," he said.

"If milk product exports are promoted from the present Rs 5,000 crore, it can touch Rs 25,000 crore in the next five years with proper implementation of the policies we have recommended," he added.

Commenting on the attractive remunerations paid to the farmers, the former chairman of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), said that unlike the private and multi national companies, Amul and Mehsana pay 84 paise to farmers for every rupee collected from the consumers. Whereas the MNCs pay 40-45 paise and even deprive the farmers from voting rights.

The cooperative leaders expressed happiness over the growth of India's dairy industry, which grew at an average rate of 4.2 per cent against the global average of 2.2 per cent in the past ten years.

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