Greater Noida(UP), Sep 12 (Representative) India’s Dairy Sector can become a business model for farmers of many poor countries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said appreciating the uniqueness of the national Dairy Co-operative System. He was addressing the International Dairy Federation World Dairy Summit (IDF WDS) 2022, organised at India Expo Centre and Mart here in Uttar Pradesh. “The potential of Dairy Sector not only strengthens our rural economy, but also is a main source of livelihood for crores of people.” Today, eight crore families are getting employment from this sector in India. The driving force of the Dairy Sector in our country are the small farmers with one, two or three animals only,” he said. Citing several specialties of the Dairy Sector in the country, the Prime Minister said that India’s dairy sector is recognised for production by masses rather than mass production. “Another feature of our Dairy Sector is the Dairy Cooperative System of India. There is such a vast network of dairy cooperatives in India, whose example is rare in the world.”
These dairy cooperatives collect milk twice a day from about two crore farmers in more than two lakh villages of the country and deliver it to the customers. There is no middleman in the process,” the Prime Minister said.Modi said that more than 70 per cent of the money that is received from the customers goes directly into the pockets of the farmers. No other country has this ratio in the whole world, the Prime Minister added. He also underlined the efficiency of the digital system of payment in the dairy sector and said that it has many lessons for other countries. Another unique feature, according to the Prime Minister, is the indigenous breeds that can withstand adverse circumstances. He gave the example of the sturdy buffalo breed of Banni Buffalo of the Kutch region of Gujarat. The Prime Minister pointed out that women have a 70 per cent representation in the workforce in India’s dairy sector. “Women are the real leaders of India’s dairy sector. Not only this, more than a third of the members of dairy cooperatives in India are women,” the Prime Minister said.
He said that India produced 146 million tonnes of milk in 2014 and it has now increased to 210 million tonnes. That is an increase of about 44 per cent, the Prime Minister pointed out. He also mentioned that as compared to the two per cent production growth at the global level, India is clocking the milk production growth rate at more than six per cent. Stressing the use of modern technology, the Prime Minister said that India is building the largest database of dairy animals and every animal associated with the dairy sector is being tagged.”We are doing biometric identification of animals. We have named it Pashu Adhar,” he said. The Prime Minister emphasised that India is working toward universal vaccination of animals. “We have resolved that by 2025, we will vaccinate 100 per cent of the animals against Foot and Mouth Disease and Brucellosis. We are aiming to be completely free from these diseases by the end of this decade, he said. The Prime Minister reiterated that India is working on a digital system which will capture the end to end activities of the livestock sector.
“This will provide accurate information needed to improve this sector. This summit will put forward the work that is being done around the world regarding many such technologies,” he said. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Parshottam Rupala and his deputy in the Ministry Dr L Murugan, President of International Dairy Federation P Brazzale, and Director General of International Dairy Federation, Caroline Emond were among those present on the occasion. The four-day long IDF WDS 2022 is a congregation of global and Indian dairy stakeholders including industry leaders, experts, farmers and policy planners centering around the theme of ‘Dairy for Nutrition and Livelihood’. Nearly 75 lakh farmers got connected with the event through technology. The last such Summit was held in India about half a century ago in 1974. The summit is aimed at helping Indian dairy farmers to gain exposure about the global best practices.