World Milk Day is celebrated in India and worldwide to recognize the efforts and milk activates involving the entire Milk producing and Dairy based industry.
The theme for 2023 World Milk Day in 2023, will focus on showcasing how dairy business is reducing its environmental footprint, while also providing nutritious foods and livelihoods. The aim is to drive and integrate environmental, nutritional and societal impacts in the Dairy and Milk based industry as a whole.
The world Milk day in India is celebrated to honor milk and dairy based industry as Milk In India has always been regarded as a high value nutritious food from ancient times. The first World Milk Day was celebrated in 2001.
Milk has a prominence in our platter since ages and Milk is based from liquid beverage from mammary glands of most living beings on earth. Here we will highlight the importance of milk mostly cow milk and dairy based produce that is widely consumed. Whole milk that we all consume and dairy based products comprise the entire Milk business.
Health benefits of Milk and Milk based products in India
Milk based products include yogurt, cheese, butter, milkshakes, paneer, and even packaged mishti dois, clarified butter or ghee as commonly known and not to forget Ice-creams which are everyone’s favorite. The list of dairy products in India is long and consumed across the country. In India milk based products have been part of important festivals and daily diets.
As per American dietary guidelines milk should be included in three 8-ounce servings of milk daily or servings that are equal in portions of other dairy foods like cheese or yogurt etc and that is mainly to increase calcium intake and reduce the risk of osteoporosis and fractures.
The Indian Milk Industry
According to the United Nations, by 2027, India is projected to overtake China as the world’s most populated country. India’s per capita milk consumption at 427 g/day already exceeds the world average of 305 g/day.
The World Milk day in India is celebrated with equal enthusiasm and understanding the value of it as a healthy part of our diet. The main purpose of celebrating World Milk Day in India is to raise awareness and highlight the contribution of the dairy industry to boosting nutrition and sustaining the livelihoods of many. This includes the Farmers, farming community, milk producers, dairy based industries that are operating in India, the entire supply chain that goes into the process of procuring and disbursement and most importantly The “Cow” referred as Gow Mata in India and worshipped.
- India is one of the highest milk producer and ranks 1st position in the world contributing 24% of global milk production in the year 2021-22.
- Milk production of India has registered 51 % increase during the last eight years i.e., during the year 2014-15 and 2021-22 and increased to 221.06 Mn tonnes in the year 2021-22. The production has increased by 5.29% over the previous year 2020-21.
- The top 5 milk-producing states are: Rajasthan (15.05%), Uttar Pradesh (14.93%), Madhya Pradesh (8.6%), Gujarat (7.56%) and Andhra Pradesh (6.97%). They together contribute 53.11% of total Milk production in the country.
- Export of dairy products recorded a growth of 19.45 % as its export rose to $471 Mn in FY 2022-23 till now (April-December 2022) from $395 Mn in April-December 2021 of the last fiscal year.
Milk Production in India
According to Foreign Agricultural Services (FAS) New Delhi, forecasts says that by end of 2023 fluid milk production in India will increase by nearly 2% to 207 million metric tonnes assuming normal southwest monsoon season (June-September).
Approximately 500 million Indians depend on livestock rearing. The majority are small-scale, marginal farmers, with 95% of India’s milk producers only having herd sizes of 1-5 animals. Larger dairy farms come in at around 50 or more animals.
Roughly 46% of the milk produced is consumed either at the producer level or sold to non-producers in rural areas, while 54% of milk production is marketed through milk cooperatives and or unorganized contractors.
Govt. Support to Dairy Industry
The Indian Dairy sector contributes 23% of global milk production and 4% to Indian GDP.
Dairy industry requires support both in terms infrastructure development across the supply chain and investments. As the dairy industry is involved in many processes before milk is placed in bottles and marketed to our kitchen and this involves processing, chilling, logistics, cattle feed etc. Further if we explore we see that additional dairy products that are created or produced have a wider market in this country where opportunity is huge and the demand for innovative products are increasing daily basis.
This include dairy based organic products, farm fresh milk and exports, skimmed milk products, condensed milk, package milk , plant-based milk that contains no lactose along with various types of milk-based cheese and milk based sweet products and also plant based milk that contain no lactose also fall in the dairy category.
However, the nutritional content varies widely, so it’s important to be sure to read the food label and ensure you and your family members are getting the desired nutrients.
To facilitate the infrastructure growth in dairy industry both Central/ State Governments have released various incentives to attract investments in this sector.
Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development fund (AHIDF). AHIDF is one of the flagship schemes by DAHD, Government of India whereby INR 15,000 Cr fund has been setup for offering financial support to set up new units or expand existing units in areas of dairy processing & related value addition infrastructure, meat processing & related value addition infrastructure and Animal Feed Plant.
To reduce imports, the Indian government’s National Action Plan for Dairy Development aims to increase organized milk production from the current 20-21% to 50% by 2023-2024.
Milk production via various cooperatives is being targeted and boost is given at all levels to increase from 10% to 20%, and the private sector from 10% to 30%. If these goals are achieved, it would give Indian dairy farmers greater access to the organized milk processing sector and increased revenue.
Top Dairy Based Organization operating in India
NDDB Dairy Services (NDS), a not for profit Company and a wholly owned subsidiary of the NDDB. It functions as a delivery arm of the NDDB for field operations relating to promoting Producer Companies and Productivity Services and is providing technical and management services for some activities under the National Dairy Plan. It has professionals NDDB’s preliminary work for setting up a Producer Company in the backward regions of Maharashtra- Vidarbha and Marathwada has also been initiated.
NDS is currently managing the two largest semen stations in the country- Sabarmati Ashram Gaushala located in Gujarat and Animal Breeding Centre located in Uttar Pradesh. Two more large semen stations are being setup in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
Amul the Taste of India
Amul is an Indian dairy cooperative, based at Anand in the state of Gujarat. Founded in 1946, the brand is today managed by the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF) which is jointly owned by about 3 million milk producers in the state.
Amul was formed as a co-operative and as a response to the exploitation of marginal milk producers by agents and traders of the existing dairy in the state. The co-operative has gone from strength to strength, under the leadership of Tribhuvandas Patel, the founder Chairman and the Dr Verghese Kurien, who was entrusted the task of running the dairy from 1950.
The business mode of Amul has helped India to emerge as the largest milk producer in the world. More than 15 million milk producers contribute their milk in 144,500 dairy cooperative societies across the country. Their milk is processed in 184 district co-operative unions and marketed by 22 state Marketing Federations, ensuring a better life for millions.
Mother Dairy
Mother Dairy manufactures markets & sells milk and milk products including cultured products, ice creams, paneer and ghee under the Mother Dairy brand. Mother Dairy was established in the year 1974.
The company operates at national level through its sales and distribution networks for marketing food items. Mother Dairy sources significant part of its requirement of liquid milk from dairy cooperatives.
The company’s headquarter is in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board. It was an initiative under Operation Flood, the world’s biggest dairy development program launched to make India a milk sufficient nation.
Parag Milk
Parag Milk was founded in the year 1992 by Dr. Kurien who ushered in ‘White Revolution’ in India with ‘Operation Flood’, the largest project for dairy development in the world. As a direct result, India became self-sufficient and global leader in milk production and dairy farmers the architects in their own development. This revolution led to an increase in milk production many fold which led to the co-operatives declaring milk holidays around Pune.
India Celebrates National Milk Day on 26th November on the birth anniversary of Dr. Verghese Kurien, who is also known as the ‘Father of White Revolution“
This adversity was circumvented by Mr. Devendra Shah (Founder & Chairman) by helping farmers by collecting their milk on such milk holidays. And thus was born Parag Milk Foods Ltd. Parag Milk Foods is one of India’s elite private sector dairy company, with a diverse portfolio in over 15 consumer centric product categories.
There are many other major players in dairy industry and all are contributing to the milk production.
The Kerala Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (Milma), The Mehsana District Cooperative Milk producers Union Ltd. (Dudhsagar Dairy), Tamilnadu cooperative Milk producers Federation (Aavin), Telangana State Dairy Development Cooperation Federation, Cream line Dairy products ltd (Jersey dairy) etc to name a few.
The World Milk day In India:
The Constant endeavor’s and efforts by dairy sector to provide a whole nutritious diet, simultaneously providing support to a whole range of population with livelihood and a thriving and building up an eco-friendly dairy industry is remarkable. On this World Milk Day, The Indian Milk & Dairy industry deserve honor and recognition in service to nation.
Celebrate this Milk Day with a glass of Milk and the slogan ‘Drink a glass of fresh milk’, to Keep the Doctor away’.