Stressing on the importance of keeping dairy activity a remunerative occupation, National Dairy Development Board chairman Amrita Patel today said that productivity of milch animals should be increased to moderate milk prices and still meet the growing demand for milk.
“Milk producers will produce more milk only if the income from the sale of milk is sufficiently attractive. This means that as the cost of milk production rises, there is no option for consumers other than to pay higher and higher prices of milk. The only answer therefore to moderate prices and still meet the growing demand for milk is to increase the productivity of milch animals,” she said while delivering the inaugural address at the National Seminar on Indian Dairy and Food Industry –Future Roadmap for Sustainable Growth at the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal.
According to her, even though milk production has been increasing in a steady manner, the demand for milk appears to be increasing at a much faster rate, thanks to a rise in incomes and improved redistribution of such income in both urban and rural areas.
The projected demand for milk by 2021-22 estimated at 180 million tonnes implies that milk production would have to be doubled and this would require us to increase our milk production, which has been growing annually at about 3.2 million tonnes over the last 15 years, to 6 million tonnes annually, without compromising our competitive advantage.
The National Dairy Plan (NDP) has projected the organised dairy sector growing to handle about 65 per cent of the marketable surplus by 2021-22 from the current level of about 30 per cent.