Dairy sector offers numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs globally: Radha Mohan Singh

The Dollar Business Bureau

Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh said on Sunday dairy industry offers enormous opportunities for the entrepreneurs all over the world and added that the country continues to be the world’s largest producer of milk.

“India is the ‘Oyster' of the global dairy industry with opportunities galore for the entrepreneurs globally, said Singh while addressing a function on the occasion of National Milk Day, being celebrated on the birth anniversary of Dr. Verghese Kurien, the father of white revolution.

The Minister further said that the milk production in India rose by 18.81% in the past three years and reached 163.6 million tonnes, leading to a considerable increase in income of dairy farmers.

“Our milk production has increased to 163.6 million tonnes in 2016-17 from 137.7 million tonnes in 2013-14. This means that output has grown by 18.81% during this period,” Singh said.

“Similarly, the per capita availability of milk increased from 307 gram in 2013-14 to 351 gram in 2016-17,” he added.

India continues to be the biggest producer of milk in the world since the last 15 years, he said while adding that this remarkable increase is contributed to the various measures taken by the Government to enhance the productivity of livestock.

Singh said that the annual growth rate of milk production has increased to 6% during 2014-17 period compared to 4% during 2011-14, whereas the annual growth rate of world’s milk production was 2% during 2014-17.

The consumption of milk in India is increasing, he said and added that this is due to the increase in people’s purchasing power, changing food habits and life styles, increasing urbanisation and demographic growth.

To meet the growing demand, the Government has initiated several dairy development schemes, by laying special focus on increasing milk production through improved productivity of dairy animals, he informed.

‘The animal husbandry department is preparing a National Action Plan Vision-2022 to create infrastructure for handling of increased milk production,” Singh said.

“The plan would not only focus on meeting the demand of milk and milk products but also help in achieving the objective of doubling the farmers’ income,” he added.

The Minister informed that a scheme named 'Dairy Processing & Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF)' has already been initiated for dairy cooperative sector with an outlay of Rs.10,881 crore.

“The scheme would focus on creation of additional milk processing and chilling infrastructure facilities and also for providing electronic milk adulteration testing equipment and facilities for manufacturing value added products,” he said.