New Delhi: Milk procurement in Gujarat has surged fivefold, reaching 250 lakh litres per day in 2024-25, up from 50 lakh litres daily in 2001-02, Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Shah highlighted that dairy farmers’ incomes have improved significantly, post-harvest losses have declined, and milk prices for farmers have risen 140 percent over the past 15 years, from Rs 400/kg fat to Rs 950/kg fat. This growth has also strengthened the chilling and milk procurement capacity of milk unions.

The minister credited several initiatives for the rise in milk procurement. Programs such as the National Dairy Development Programme (NPDD), Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF), and Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) have supported infrastructure modernization, value-addition, breed improvement, fodder development, and capacity-building.

Under NPDD, Gujarat received Rs 315 crore in grants over seven years against a project outlay of Rs 515 crore, leading to the installation of 2,052 bulk milk coolers, 4,309 automatic milk collection systems, and 1,000 milk adulteration detection machines. The state’s robust dairy cooperative network, led by Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (Amul), currently procures around 250 lakh litres of milk per day through its cooperatives. DeshGujarat