I
am delighted to participate in the
inauguration of 37th Dairy Industry Conference
organized by the Indian Dairy Association at
Panjim. During the last six decades, Indian
Dairy Industry has experienced a marked change
and India has become a developed dairying
nation. I congratulate the members of Indian
Dairy Association both present and past for
creating a robust system of dairy management
leading to this transition. I am sure, in the
coming years, the Indian Dairy Association
will undertake pro-active steps to further
enhance the rate of growth of this industry in
the 21st Century. My greetings to the all the
members of dairy fraternity on this occasion.
Indian Dairy scenario
Today the average per capita availability of
milk in India has reached 246 gm per day. When
the world milk production in 2008 is around
700 million tonnes, India has produced 106
million tonnes. This was achieved due to the
bovine population of 283 million (185 millions
cattle and 98 millions buffaloes) and its
strong wide spread milk procurement system
established by NDDB, through the operation
flood programme — 15 state federations, 177
District unions and 1,28,799 village
cooperative societies. Today, the livestock
sector contribution to agriculture GDP is
around 25-28%. Dairy sector contribution is
around 65-70% to livestock sector. We have
less than 1000 milk processing centres in
India. The goals of the 11th five year plan
for the livestock sector are expected to
achieve an overall growth between 6% to 7% per
annum for the sector as a whole and the milk
production growth is estimated to 5% per annum
from 100 million tonnes from 2008 to 126.42
million tonnes by 2011-12.
National Milk Vision
As
envisaged in the India vision 2020,
particularly for MILK we need to launch a
“National Milk Vision” in an integrated manner
in the following fronts.
Cattle breeding:
It is essential to have a progressive national
level breeding policy and make the consistent
policies at the state level to enhance the
input to output (feed to milk) ratio. The
major technology implemented and tried so are
cross-breeding through Artificial insemination
(AI), Embryo Transfer (ET) and development of
transgenic animals. It is necessary to enhance
and enrich the number of semen banks, properly
trained manpower, infrastructure for
monitoring blood levels of cross-breed cows
and availability of good quality and proven
bulls. Also we need to add more than 30,000 AI
centers before the 11th plan period. In order
to active the progress, it may be established
in Public Private Partnership mode to provide
efficient door-step quality breeding services
to farmers. Embryo transfer has to be
commercialized and made into an economically
viable proposition. Patenting of Cross breeds
through DNA markers for adoption may be
considered in the short term.
Feed and nutrition:
Feed accounts for almost 60% of the cost
inputs for milk production and has a direct
bearing on the yield of cattle. Presently the
primary feed for cattle is crop residue and
seasonal fodder because of which the yield,
particularly of cross-bred animals, has been
low in lean seasons. The area under cultivated
Fodder production is limited only to 4.60% of
the total cultivable land, it is essential to
increase fodder production by increasing area
under cultivation to 12% of the total
cultivable land. Also there is a need to carry
out research for dry land fodder production
techniques.
Other research and inventions carried out by
the various agencies may be found out and its
suitability of its adoption Indian environment
such as straw soaked in urea water,
appropriate feeding systems for buffaloes and
cattle, medicated urea-molasses blocks (UMB)
for parasite control, agroforestry systems of
livestock production and the use of herbal
anti-helmintics in cattle, genetic
characterization of livestock, laboratory
based feed evaluation systems (in vitro and
nuclear techniques); feeding systems using
unconventional low cost feeds and integrated
rice/forage production may be considered.
Apart from that an appropriate management
intervention has to be focused towards
increasing average milk production per cow per
day; increasing lactation length; decreasing
age to first calving and decreasing calving
interval, could expect to triple the yield and
average income. The utilization of grassland
and wasteland for fodder cultivation was
expected to take place only in the medium to
long term because of social factors associated
with the development of such lands.
Apart from that, large quantity of oil cakes
is being exported. Consequently, the price of
groundnut cake, soya extraction, rapeseed
extraction and sunflower extraction has
increased by 60 to 66 percent in the last one
year. This has resulted in the increased cost
of feeding and maintenance of milch cattle
resulting in increased cost of production.
Recently I have come across effective method
of removing the toxicity from Jatropha oil
cake which could become the feed for the
cattle. According to International Dairy
Federation (IDF), the farmers in India get
paid lowest price for their produce in the
world. There is already developing a situation
of crisis and dairy farmers find it more
profitable to sell off buffaloes since export
of meat is fetching good price due to its
export initiatives by the government. We need
to come out with the policies which will
enrich the feed and nutrition of the cattle at
an affordable price.
Cattle Healthcare:
India has 283 million cattle which is largest
in the world. India now occupies number one
position in the world in respect of milk
production and fourth position in egg
production. But based on the comparative
analysis of milk yield in various countries,
for instance, shows that milk yield per cattle
in major milk producing countries is 6-12
times higher than India. It is largely due to
the presence of large number of unproductive
cattle, scarcity of feed resources. In this
connection, it is better to study the model
created by Baba Sri Bhadariya Maharaj in the
desert area of Pokhran. His Ashram is
providing shelter to nearly 20,000 stray cows,
feeding them and converting them as milk
yielding cows. Baba is providing free milk and
butter milk to the travelers in the desert.
The
most fundamental factor behind low
productivity is ill health, lack of nutrition
and poor stock of a large number of cattle in
the bovine population. High yield per cattle,
which is the function of its breeding, feed
and nutrition, healthcare and farm management
is the obvious casualty. It is essential to
conduct training programmes to farmers, so
that they are aware of effective breeding
programmes, availability about veterinary
drugs and antibiotics, satisfactory hygiene
conditions for housing cattle. Providing
better accessibility of veterinary services at
the village level is essential.
Farm Management:
Farm management is one of the factors that
influences productivity of cattle and thereby
milk production. Currently there are very few
organized dairy farms in the country. Most
dairy farming is undertaken by small farmers
whose primary activity is agriculture. Their
land holdings are small with few heads of
cattle. They need proper education and
training so that their cattles are housed in
hygienic conditions, providing a feed with
increased multitrial value, providing adequate
healthcare, automating the milking process at
the central level, provide adequate water to
the cattle.
Improving the Milk
yield: With the creation of
favorable conditions discussed above, we
should target the milk yield per milch animal
to be at 1000-1200 liters per year in the
short term, 1500-2400 liters per year in the
medium term and 2400-3000 liters per year in
the long term. The use of Bovine Somatotropin
Treatment (BST) by BG Hormone for increasing
milk yield may be examined for use in the
medium to long term.
Procurement and
Transportation: We also need to
concentrate on Milk procurement and
transportation by empowering the village
cooperative societies to take up this task
with the involvement of private entrepreneurs.
They should have local quality testing centers
Anand type to create awareness among the
farmers about low microbial counts and low
degree of contamination.
Processing and
Marketing: It is essential to
empower the farmers by creating awareness on
the importance of bacteria free quality of
milk. This will need provision of adequate
chilling plant facilities, proper maintenance
of equipments and provision of venture capital
loans for periodic enhancing of processing
capabilities. The level of processing is
expected to be around 15% in the short term,
20% in the medium term and 30% in the long
term. We need to empower the farmers so that
large and modern commercially viable units
entering into the indigenous dairy products
manufacturing by bringing improved quality
standards, commercially viable technologies,
nano technology based packing and refrigerated
transportation system for hygienic
distribution and increased shelf-life.
World Trade:
Today, India is not a major player in the
international trade. The India's share in
world trade of dairy product is negligible
(0.2%) and in case of meat and poultry also
India's share is very low (0.5%). Global
export of milk product in milk equivalent
terms is projected at 40.4 million tonnes in
2008, up almost 3 percent from the previous
year. The current export of dairy products
from India during the 2007-08 is around 178
million dollars. In the long term, we should
aspire for exports of at least 15 to 20% of
our production costing over $4 Billion. For
this, it is essential to concentrate on (1)
improving the quality of raw milk, (2) Dairy
hygiene standards (3) maintaining consistency
of supplies (3) formulating a consisting
export policy and (4) improving our packaging
systems. At the same time, we need to
formulate a clearly enunciated export policy
for dairy products which could include
incentives for exports particularly in view of
the global competition.
Launch of National
Milk Vision: When we launch a
National Milk Vision, as a variant of White
revolution, we will empower the farmers with
the implementation of above missions, will
certainly put India on the high yielding milk
map and also bring sustainable development in
the rural area enriching the Agriculture,
animal husbandry and food processing creating
value added employment opportunities to the 60
million families. The second green revolution
will be hastened up due to this National Milk
Vision, because it will act as feeder channel
and result into a economic multiplier for the
nation especially during the recession.
So
far, we have seen how can we shape our
missions towards achieving National milk
vision, but you may think w where is the
success story which we can emulate? Yes we
have number of success stories which are
making a difference in the life of rural
citizens such as Gujarat Amul model pioneered
by Kurien, BAIF, JK Trust and other successful
models operating in the state governments.
Since I have a personal experience with one of
the organizations such as BAIF, I would like
to share with you the experience, so that it
successful model can be emulated across India
in association with Indian Dairy association
and NDDB with the committed societal
organizations.
Bharatiya Agro
Industries Foundation (BAIF) Model for
Tribal Rehabilitation & Dry Regions
I
have witnessed the integrated village cluster
development programme during my visit with Dr.
Narayan G Hegde, an IIM graduate who is an
expert in farming and Dairying. The two
village clusters of south Gujarat - Chonda and
Lachakadi had a population of 5000. From these
villages every summer the tribal people
migrate to nearby towns. The BAIF model was
installed in these two villages with peoples'
co-operation and the participation of state
authorities. Firstly water harvesting was
undertaken to get water for every individual.
Every home was provided with livestock and
also a market for milk. Simultaneously, fruit
orchards were established with various fruit
crops such as cashew and mangoes, which are
tolerant to drought. When I visited, these
villages, there was a connecting road and
water ponds. The tribal population, with
radiant smiles on their faces, was harvesting
crops, packaging and carrying milk to
different supply points. I happened to see the
economic growth and prosperity of the tribal
people, which has been facilitated by BAIF
with people's participation. I understand that
this model - Vadi (Orchard) has now been
replicated in many places by the state
governments of Maharashtra, Gujarat,
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar,
Jharkhand, Uttaranchal, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal covering over
47,000 villages. The prosperity has spread to
over 2.5 million families. Self employment has
been created for over one million unemployed
youth.
Dairy Husbandry:
Since, I am with the dairy community; I would
like to talk about that the dairy practices of
BAIF. They have carried out promotion of dairy
husbandry through upgradation of low
productive non-descript cattle on priority
basis as most of the villagers owned a few
cattle and the programme ensured
techno-economic viability and prosperity for
small farmers. BAIF members demonstrated the
feasibility of producing high yielding cows by
breeding uneconomic nondescript cattle with
exotic dairy breeds while conserving the elite
native breeds. Unemployed local youth were
trained to undertake livestock breeding,
pregnancy diagnosis, disease prevention
vaccinations, primary health care, forage
production, feeding and other technical
aspects of livestock development in rural
areas, assigning 12-15 villages for each Para
Veterinary assistant. This programme has
enabled needy farmers to regain their
confidence and produce good quality cattle.
Door to door service has helped them to avail
of timely services and to develop confidence
in technology adoption. This programme has
also conserved community pastures and forests
and promoted organic farming, women
empowerment and nutritional security through
easy supply of milk and enhanced agricultural
production.
BAIF has nearly 1850 cattle breeding centres
which they proposed to increase to 5000 in the
next three years. The whole country will need
over 30,000 cattle breeding centres, so that
we can generate the cattle needed by 50
million families. This will need replication
of BAIF type organisation in different parts
of the country and simultaneously, providing
additional input to BAIF, so that they can
train and empower the locals to undertake the
tasks involved in cattle breeding, cattle
care, milk processing and marketing. Indian
Dairy Association has to work with such a
target which will enable generation of 2
million jobs in the rural sector, promote
organic farming improve the environment and
facilitate availability of milk which could be
exported by our farmers. The aim should be to
export at least 5% of the global demand by the
end of 11th plan period year 2012.
Some of the actions needed for promoting
exports of dairy products are:
-
We have to generate a consistent export
policy with suitable incentives and long
term market creation goal.
-
Formulation and implementation of a quality
assurance system for the export of dairy
products through an independent agency.
-
Formulation and implementation of product
diversification strategy to cope with wide
fluctuation in pricing of international milk
products, particularly milk powder.
-
The farmers should be train and given the
incentive to maintain high degree of hygiene
from cattle, vessel, transportation,
delivery and the right type of feed given to
the cattle.
-
Activating the water bodies in the rural
village should become corporate social
responsibility of the industries and the
enterprises in that region.
Conclusion: Milk PURA
I
visualize out of 7000 PURA complexes in the
country; at least 2000 will be Milk PURA
complexes. They will be empowered with the
dairy missions such as milk production and
development of milk products. Since, we are
going through economic turbulence; this is the
time we have to empower our milk farmers to
make a difference in the growth of the GDP for
which no foreign aid is needed, no foreign
technology is needed. It will be a purely
Indian effort; hence prosperity will be
assured even during a period of economic
turbulence. Can the milk men of country take
up this challenge and overcome the effects of
economic turbulence due to global recession?
With these words, I inaugurate the 37th Dairy
Industry Conference of Indian Dairy
Association and I greet the organizers and the
participants of the conference for success in
their mission of inclusive development through
“National Milk Vision”.
May
God bless you.
I
would like to administer an oath to all the
milk farmers.
Oath for Dairy farmers
-
I
love dairy farming and it is a noble
profession.
-
Every cattle is my friend and is a wealth
generator.
-
I
will treat the cattle with kindness and
compassion and always keep them disease free
and healthy.
-
I
will ensure cleanliness of all the feeds
given to the cattle and maintain the cattle
are in a clean environment.
-
I
will get trained in producing value added
milk for export and ensure that the standard
hygiene of milk is maintained right from
cattle, vessel, storage, transportation and
delivery.
- I will make my dairy profession as a
passion and serve the nation.
