Shri Sharad Pawarji, Honourable Union Minister for Agriculture & Food Processing Industries, Shri Narendra Modiji, Honourable Chief Minister of Gujarat, Dr Charan Das Mahantji, Honourable Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Food Processing Industries, State Ministers of Animal Husbandry & Dairying,  Shri Rudhra Gangadharan, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries, Government of India,  Smt. Rajni Sekhri Sibal, Joint Secretary, Dairy Development, Government of India,   State Secretaries of Animal Husbandry & Dairying,   Chairmen and Managing Directors of State Dairy Federations, Shri Dilip Rath, Mission Director, National Dairy Plan, invited guests, ladies and gentlemen....

It is indeed an honour for us that the Honourable Agriculture Minister has chosen to launch the National Dairy Plan from Anand the cradle of our country’s milk revolution and where the first seeds of cooperation in dairying were sown 65 years ago.

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the World. However, we face a number of challenges one of which is achieving inclusive growth and improving the delivery of services in our rural areas. Dairying is a major source of livelihood for millions of small milk producers. About 70 million of the reported 150 million rural households depend on dairying for a livelihood in varying degrees. With a low gini coefficient, dairying in India can play a major role in overcoming the challenge of achieving inclusive growth. Milk is the single largest agricultural commodity in the country in terms of value of output and India is also the world’s largest producer of milk with an annual production of about 121.8 million tonnes in 2010-11. The annual average growth rate of domestic milk production over the last decade has been around 4% with world milk production growing at a rate of under 2%.  And half of that is contributed by India.

As our economy grows, and incomes increase, the demand for milk and milk products is expected to grow much faster. Meeting this demand from domestic production would require substantial growth over the next decade. If we fail to achieve the desired growth, India the largest milk producer in the world would need to resort to imports.  Even small quantities of imports by India would spike international prices thereby resulting in higher import cost and therefore higher consumer prices. Hence enhancing milk productivity and increasing milk production to meet the projected demand is the only answer and is the key challenge facing our Dairy Sector. At the same time, the dairy sector faces numerous environmental challenges, the major ones being methane emissions, as the livestock sector accounts for almost 50% of all methane emissions in the country with buffaloes alone contributing to about 60% of this, the availability of quality feed and fodder and the growing shortage of water resources in many parts of the country. All these could constrain the growth of milk production in the coming years.

With the de-licensing of the dairy industry in 1991 and the elimination of milk sheds in 2002 – the private sector presence in milk processing has grown at a rapid pace. In fact, the registered milk processing capacity in the private sector now exceeds that in the cooperative sector. However a large number of milk producers continue to have limited access to the organised milk processing sector. As you will have noted in the Audio Visual, only about 30 percent of the marketable surplus is sold to the organised sector –  with the cooperative and private having an almost equal share.  For consumers, milk processed and marketed by the organised sector is safer and less likely to be adulterated. One of the goals of the NDP is in fact to work towards substantially increasing the share of the organised sector from 30% to 65% over a 15 year period. 

Domestic prices of milk have increased substantially in the past few years and this poses a significant concern in terms of food and nutritional security. On the other hand milk producers are finding the business of milk production increasingly unremunerative due to the increase in the cost of milk production. This could lead to some of them disengaging from dairying and looking for other alternative sources of livelihood. At the same time, while increase in prices paid to producers would compensate them for the increased cost of production, this would in the long term erode our competitiveness in the world market. There is therefore an urgent need to increase the productivity of our milch animals.  At the same time,  farmers need to be encouraged and incentivised to increase the size of their animal holdings.

In 2008, NDDB had drawn up an outline of a National Dairy Plan to accelerate milk production.  The Plan had a 15 year horizon with a proposed outlay of about Rs.17,000 crores . It envisaged a focused multi-state initiative to improve animal productivity, strengthen and expand infrastructure for milk procurement at village level, and enhance milk processing capacity and marketing, backed with appropriate policy and regulatory measures.

In the discussions that followed between the Department of Animal Husbandry, Government of India and  NDDB with the World Bank, the latter indicated that while they would consider supporting the 15 year National Dairy Plan,  in keeping with their policies they would initially support a phase I of a duration of 6 years. The World Bank further indicated that while the activities related to increasing productivity and milk collection at village level could be financed through soft IDA credit, the funding of the commercial activities i.e.,  processing plants and marketing could be through IBRD loans. As it was felt that the process required for finalising the IBRD loan would be a somewhat lengthy one, it was decided that the NDP should commence with the components for which IDA credit was available. Discussions for the financing of processing facilities and marketing are continuing. 

Since early 2011, the DADF along with NDDB have had discussions with representatives of the 14 major dairying states with regard to the Project Components of the NDP and in particular the policy and regulatory support that they would need to provide to ensure the success of activities proposed in the NDP. 

The key components and the outlay of the NDP were presented in the audio visual presentation that you have just seen.  I would however like to touch upon very briefly some issues which I believe are critical to the success of the NDP.

As you may have appreciated, the NDP is a programme which proposes to take technologies to the farmers’ doorstep, which will lead to increasing productivity.   However, the monitoring of a programme having such a wide coverage geographically and so many End Implementing Agencies requires computerised information systems that continuously capture and access field level data so that it can be analysed and feedback can be provided to the respective stakeholders.  The starting point for this is the identification of each animal covered in the programme, whether for breeding, feeding or vaccination, with a unique number through eartagging.  Farmers in some states today are resisting this, but serious efforts will be required by all the End Implementing Agencies and the State Animal Husbandry Departments to overcome this resistance by educating our farmers on the longer term benefits to them in accessing technologies and products to enable them manage their animals better. 

Disease control needs to be taken much more seriously by the State Animal Husbandry departments at least in the areas identified for bull and semen production which should be notified as ‘Disease Control Areas’ as only then can we be sure of producing disease free bulls and semen.

Critical to the success of the programme is professional manpower.  Our greatest challenge is going to be sufficient trained and committed professionals who are willing to work for and engage with farmers and farmer institutions, because they are our only hope of being the instruments of change.  And that search for committed young men and women must start immediately.

The goals of the National Dairy Plan are challenging but not unachievable, if collectively the Central Government and State Governments, NDDB and the End Implementing Agencies remain focused and committed to their respective roles and responsibilities.

Thank you.