To tap our milk

To cope with the protectionist policies of developed countries, which are especially reinforced within the provisions of WTO, India too needs to vigorously defend its turf, says BN Mathur

The Indian dairy sector is the single largest contributor to India’s gross domestic product, with its annual value exceeding Rs 1,00,000 crore. India has emerged as the largest milk producer in the world, with a production of 84.6 MT during 2001-02, while the world’s total estimated milk production during the same period is 584 MT.

Strengths of the Indian dairy industry

With 198 million cattle and 86 million buffaloes, India has the largest population of milch animals in the world. With a modest effort towards managing increased milk production, India could match or exceed the milk production of the major players of dairy commodities, namely New Zealand; Australia; Holland; and Denmark. It is this potential that can catapult India as a major player in exporting dairy products. A nationwide programme for prevention and control of animal epidemics, and creation of disease free zones coupled with efficient delivery of artificial insemination facilities will have a tremendous impact on improving the productivity of milch animals. This, in turn, would strengthen India’s entry into the global milk products market, as well as improve the quality and viability of the entire Indian dairy industry. 

In India we follow a ‘crop-livestock production system’, where crop residues are fed to the milch animals. This renders a competitive advantage to Indian milk vis-à-vis countries that practice stall feeding, as feeding cost is the main determinant of the cost of milk production. Today, India either matches or surpasses countries like New Zealand, Australia and Argentina as the cheapest producer of milk. Overall, almost 70 per cent of the world’s milk is more expensive than Indian milk.

The major milk importing countries are Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Japan, UAE, Oman, and other gulf countries located in close proximity to India.

Challenges confronting the Indian dairy industry

In productivity terms, India continues to record very low figures with an average daily milk yield of 2.14 kg per animal (an indigenous cow yields 1.89 kg, crossbred cow 6.46 kg, buffalo 3.91 kg, and goat 300 ml/day). The productivity of cows in India is 732 kg/lactation, as against 1,600 kg/lactation in China, 7,200 kg/lactation in US and over 12,000 kg/lactation in Israel.

To have an exportable surplus in the long-term and also to maintain cost competitiveness, it is imperative to improve the productivity of the Indian cattle. Modifying the production units in the dairy sector by enhancing the quality of the milch animals and smallholder farming systems will enable better utilisation of available feed, fodder and human resources. Vigorous implementation of proven production technologies like artificial insemination and cross breeding would be of great help in improving the productivity of milch animals on a sustainable basis.

Improving the quality of milk

The quality of milk produced in India falls well below the international standards and intensive efforts are required in this area to be a global player. The WTO’s sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) and technical barriers of trade (TBT) agreements and Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex) have set the guidelines for quality and safety requirements.

In order to export, the chemical and microbiological quality of milk has to meet the stipulated international standards. The SPS and TBT agreements have recognised the international standards of Codex as reference points for facilitating the global trade.

For this, a large network of laboratories equipped with quality testing facilities, uniform methods of analysis, adequate technical personnel to manage the quality assurance tasks, and legislative measures are needed.

Opportunities available

Realising the nutritional importance of milk in the dietary regimen, the consumption of milk and milk products is increasing in Asia and Africa. Most of the countries in these continents are large importers of dairy products and, thus, these regions are emerging as important dairy export markets.

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