I
am indeed grateful to Bharat Ratna H.E. Dr.
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for very kindly agreeing to
inaugurate the XXXVII Dairy Industry
Conference and be its Chief Guest. I am also
grateful to Hon'ble Chief Minister of Goa,
Hon'ble Minister for Dairy Development and
Hon'ble Speaker of Goa, and to Dr. Amrita
Patel, Chairman, National Dairy Development
Board, for agreeing to deliver the Keynote
address on the theme of the Conference.
On
behalf of the IDA, I welcome all the delegates
who have made it possible to come from
different parts of the country and oblige us
by their gracious presence.
Dairying in India is an integral part of total
farming system. According to estimates of the
CSO (Central Statistical Organisation) the
value of output from livestock at current
prices was about Rs. 1,73,350 crores in
2005-06. Milk accounted for 68 percent of this
output and it was higher than paddy or wheat.
In terms of value of the output, milk is the
single largest agricultural commodity in
India. Dairying contributes close to the third
of the gross income of rural household and in
the case of those without land, it attributes
nearly half of their gross income. It is
estimated that over 60 million rural
households of which three fourth are landless,
marginal or small farmers are engaged in milk
production which is a major source of their
livelihood. Dairying in India is, therefore, a
truly livelihood activity.
While India has emerged as the highest milk
producer in the world, there are many
challenges faced by the industry. Some of the
challenges are due to inadequate
infrastructural facilities while others are
due to faulty developmental and trade
policies.
At
present only about 16 per cent of milk is
processed in the organised sector, thus
denying benefit of value addition to a large
proportion of milk producers. Indian dairy
industry needs to upgrade itself and to
realise the benefits of gains in dairy sector,
both public and private sectors need to invest
heavily in logistics and infrastructure,
processing and modern retailing. Dairying can
become a strong instrument of growth, in case,
these challenges are resolved.
The
recent global recession has also adversely
affected the growth of the Indian Dairying.
The exports of dairy products from India which
had been showing impressive growth have been
hit badly due to recession. The international
prices of milk products have crashed and are
likely to further go down. EU has started
export subsidy which was suspended since April
2007 under WTO Agreement. EU would also
purchase milk and milk products at guaranteed
prices for exports and provide subsidy at Euro
170 per mt for SMP, Euro 260 per mt for WMP,
Euro 450 per mt for Butter and Euro 545 per mt
for Butter oil. USA farmers are also demanding
that their milk products should be purchased
at guaranteed prices and given to developing
poor countries as food aid. This may result in
large scale export of products to India, thus
adversely affecting the livelihood of millions
of farm families.
All
the challenges would be discussed threadbare
in different technical sessions and the
results put together with the recommendations
would be presented in the Plenary Session in
the form of Goa Declaration.
Thanks to all.
