12 January 2012

3 minute read

Asia

During the year, dairy cooperatives collected 9.6 million tonnes of milk, a growth of around one per cent over last year. Liquid milk marketing by cooperatives increased by around four per cent over the previous year and was about 8.2 million tonnes in 2010-11.

Explaining that higher GDP growth, increased incomes in rural areas through schemes like MGNREGA and a growing population are contributing to a rapidly growing demand for milk, Dr Amrita Patel, Chairman, NDDB said: “Increasing domestic milk production at the pace required through adoption of a scientific approach by improving the genetic potential of milk animals and feeding them a balanced diet, to ensure they produce milk commensurate with their genetic potential, is the only way to meet the surge in demand.

"It is therefore imperative that a scientifically planned multi-state initiative is launched and NDDB has therefore prepared a National Dairy Plan (NDP) with a fifteen year horizon."

“NDP has been appraised by the World Bank and approval for the project is expected shortly," she added.

Additional funding for activities that are commercial in nature such as plants for milk processing and manufacture of cattle feed, are being explored with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an affiliate of the World Bank.

The National Dairy Plan aims at contributing to increasing milk production by increasing productivity in existing dairy animals through a focused and scientific process for breeding and feeding.

The first phase of the NDP is proposed to be implemented over a period of six years and envisages an investment of around Rs. 2000 crore for activities ranging from:

• Production of high genetic merit bulls,
• Production of disease free quality semen,
• Implementing a pilot to promote a model for viable doorstep AI delivery services following prescribed Standard Operating Procedures,
• Ration Balancing Programme,
• Extension and demonstrations for fodder development,
• Interventions to strengthen village based milk procurement systems,
• ICT for breeding and nutrition services – based on ear tagging of animals and capturing and transmitting data from the field to central database servers for monitoring, analysis and feedback,
• Augmenting systems in the villages for procurement of milk in a fair and transparent manner,
• Project learning and monitoring and capacity building and training.

The project is proposed to be carried out by End Implementing Agencies (EIAs) including State Cooperative Dairy Federations; District Cooperative Milk Producers Unions; Producer Companies and State Livestock development Boards that meet the criteria for each activity and in states that have agreed to put in place the necessary regulatory and policy measures to create an enabling environment for the successful implementation of the project.

During 2010-11, NDDB continued to provide a range of technical services by undertaking numerous engineering projects, implementing programmes to produce high genetic merit bulls, managing two of the largest semen production stations that together produce about 18 per cent of the total frozen semen doses in the country, facilitating pilots for Ration Balancing Advisory Services, R&D activities related to animal vaccines and diagnostics, methane emission reduction through balanced feeding and solid state fermentation technology and training initiatives focused on equipping dairy professionals with the latest technology and hands-on practices and capacity building of milk producers, staff and directors on the boards of milk unions on recent developments in the dairy sector.

TheCattleSite News Desk