Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Radha Mohan Singh on January 13 said that milk production has become a major economic activity amongst rural households and farmers are adopting dairying along with agriculture for augmenting their income. Singh stated this during the inter-session meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of Ministry of Agriculture in New Delhi. Implementation of National Dairy Plan was also discussed during the meeting.
Singh said that about 70 million rural households are engaged in milk production. The small and marginal farmers and landless labourer produce about one to three litres of milk daily and are responsible for production of most of the milk for the country. About 78 %t farmers in India are small and marginal, who own about 75 % of female bovine but own only 40 % farm land. Milk contributes to one third of gross income of rural households and in case of landless its contribution is half in their gross income, he said.
India continues to hold the number one position among milk producing nations of the world since 1998, Singh. India has largest bovine population in the world (18.4 %). Milk production in India has increased from 22 million tonne in 1970 to 156 million tonne in 2015-16, which shows a growth of 700 % during last 46 year. As a result, the per capita availability of milk in India is 337 gram/day compared to average world per capita availability of 229 gram/day, he said. About 54% of milk produced in the country is surplus of which about 38% is handled by the organized sector. The Co-operatives and private dairy organisations have equal share in it. Singh said that women participation in dairying is about 70 %.
Singh said that in order to encourage the farmers for increasing milk production, milk collection facilities need to be upgraded and farmers be given remunerative price for their produce. This is possible only when an effective management system is in place to link the farmers to the market, according to a PIB release.