Agriculture minister credits farmers for India’s largest milk producer nation tag

New Delhi: Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Mr Radha Mohan Singh has said that the National Dairy Project (NDP) aims to increase the productivity of milch animals which will lead to increase in milk production for meeting growing demand for milk. Mr Singh made these remarks in the TK Patel Auditorium, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) Anand, Gujarat while giving away Dairy Excellence Awards. In this program, Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr Vijay Rupani and Union Minister for State, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Mr Purushottam Rupala were also present.

Mr Singh said that the productivity of milch animals is increasing through artificial insemination using high-quality semen taken from high genetic bulls and by proving balanced food to the animals of the farmers.

“The country has been the world’s largest producer of milk for the last two decades and its credit goes to the farmers of the country. Since more than two-thirds of our nation’s citizens live in rural areas, therefore, there is a need to make the farmers more prosperous, for which dairy sector is important,” mentioned Mr Singh.

Union Agriculture Minister said that NDDB has implemented several major dairy development programs including ‘Operation Flood’ from its inception in the country. “India is at number one in milk production and contributes 19 percent of the world’s total milk production. Dairy farmers’ income has increased by 13.79 percent in the year 2014-17 compared to the year-ago period. Milk production, which was 155.49 million tonnes during 2015-16, is planned to increase it to 200 million tonnes in 2019-20.”

Presently, NDDB is in the leading role for the implementation of the National Dairy Plan (NDP) and the recently announced Dairy Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF). The Central Government has established dairy infrastructure development fund (DIDF) at the cost of Rs 10,881 crore for the period from 2017-18 to 2028-29.

The purpose of the DIDF is to establish an effective mechanism for creating a basic structure for milk cooling at village level and installing electronic equipment for milk adulteration, manufacturing/modernization/processing facilities and for procuring milk. Educational institutes would set up for value-added products for milk unions/milk producers companies.

The purpose of NDP-1 is to help in increasing the productivity of milch animals and thereby increase the milk production to meet the growing demand of milk and to provide more assistance to rural milk producers for more market access, including organized milk processing sector. During the year 2015-16, NDP-1 has been expanded into four states (Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Telangana, and Uttarakhand) and its implementation period has been extended to 2018-19.

Mr Singh said that his experience indicates that producer-centric institutions are very important for dairy development. Union Agriculture Minister said that the selection of Dairy Excellence Awards has been done fairly and the producer-centric institution which has achieved excellence in operation, administration, and inclusion have been honoured with Dairy Excellence Award where the winners will be encouraged to maintain their performance, it is expected that by learning from these role models, others will be motivated to achieve excellence.