Amul welcomes Centre’ decision to have a separate ministry for Animal Husbandry and Dairying

Anand: Amul has welcomed Shri Narendra Modi’s decision to have a separate Ministry for Animal Husbandry, Dairying, and Fisheries. It would be pertinent to note that this for the first time Government at the Center has formed a separate department for Animal Husbandry, Dairying, and Fisheries.

Commenting on this development, Shri Ramsinhbhai Parmar, Chairman, GCMMF said that as per latest animal enumeration, there are 30 crores bovine population in India. Dairying and Animal Husbandry contributing around Rs. 7.7 lakh crores per year which are around 4.2% of National GDP and emerged as a primary source of income for about 7 crores rural households – most of them are either landless, small or marginal farmers. Animal Husbandry and dairying is contributing around 30% of total agriculture GDP. He has also shared that Milk is the “largest agriculture crop of India” and the total value of produce is around Rs. 7 lakh crores which is more than the total value of all pulses and grain put together. It is, therefore, most appropriate that a separate ministry is created which would ensure proper focus and right budget and resource allocation that the sector required.

He further informed that India has been the largest milk producer country of the world for the last 21 years. Current milk production of India stands at around 176 million metric tonnes per year (48 crores liter per day) which is around 20% of world milk production. He added that dairying and animal husbandry sector has a potential to increase farmers’ income and to achieve Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision to double farmers’ income by the year 2022-23 over the base year 2015-16. Currently, Animal Husbandry and dairying contribute around 12% of total farmers’ income but as per NSSO survey, farmers income growth rate from the sector is around 14.3% which implies that sector can contribute greatly in doubling farmers’ income.

Shri Parmar has also welcomed center’s decision to allocate a separate budget to control Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis

On this occasion, Shri R S Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF has informed that milk producer members are losing around 80-90% of milk when infected with FMD and around 25-30% when infected with brucellosis. He further added that by vaccinating all bovine animals against FMD and Brucellosis, we can reduce the milk production loss which is directly beneficial to milk producer members.

It is important to note that in the next 40 years, India’s population will increase to 170 crores billion from the current 135 crores and around 50% of the Indian population will reside in urban areas, from the current level of around 32%. Based on urbanization and population growth estimates, dairy industry envisaged that India needs around 64 crores liter of milk per day to fulfill the demand for milk and milk products. This means that India’s milk production needs to grow at around 3.2% CAGR for the next 40 years.