Greater Noida, India: The Government of India is looking to boost the dairy sector beyond milk for value creation through cow dung and cattle waste to give additional financial benefits to milk producers, an overwhelming majority comprising small and marginal farmers. Speaking at one of the sessions at the IDF World Dairy Summit 2022, Union Minister of Rural Development and Pachayati Raj, Giriraj Singh said on Tuesday, “The dairy cattle waste is being utilised for biogas, biofertilisers, vedic plaster and paint to ensure that even waste gives the return to the farmers to buffer their income. He was speaking at the session titled ‘Evolution of Dairying: A Livelihood Perspective’.
To enhance the productivity of cows and buffalos in India, Government of India is also giving a boost to artificial insemination. NDDB (National Dairy Development Board) subsidiary NDDB Dairy Services is a dominant player in the segment with 5.1 crore semen straws annually in a market of 12 crore under superior animal genetics.
Addressing the other session of ‘Trends in Animal Health’ on Day 2 of the ongoing IDF World Dairy Summit 2022, Sanjeev Balyan, Union Minister of State of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying informed that there was an African Swine Flu affecting the swine population, besides creating problems in the poultry sector too. Balyan said the challenge before the dairy sector is various diseases emanating from different countries and added that India was fully committed to vaccinate all its cattle, which because of total number is an onerous task. Yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that this vaccination programme was intended to free the cattle population from foot and mouth diseases.
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Balyan said, “We have to think of how we can stop animal diseases from one country to another. Central government, state government and milk cooperatives will have to come together to overcome the situation and strengthen the infrastructure.” Urging the cooperatives including Mother Dairy, Balyan said, “All cooperatives should replicate the Amul model of animal services.”
The session – Trends in Animal Health – also saw participation from Upamnyu Basu, Joint Secretary (Livestock Health) Department of Animal Husbandry, Government of India wherein he talked about the government’s National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP). He informed that NADCP aims to control FMD and Brucellosis in the coming years as he showcased the NADCP programme architecture and end-to-end process map of vaccination against FMD under the programme along with the roadmap and way ahead.
Other key speakers in the session included Hirufumi Kugita, Head of Regional Representation for Asia-Pacific, WOAH; Scott McDougall, Professor, Massey University, New Zealand and Anna Stygar, Research Scientist, Natural Resources Institute, Finland. The session was chaired by David Kelton, Professor, University of Guelph, Canada.
Speaking at a parallel session on ‘Dairy Farm Management: Opportunities & Approach’, L Murugan, Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying said that the dairy sector has tremendous potential making India the global leader with sustainably higher growth of 6 per cent and the government is fully committed for further development and benefit of billions of farmers.
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Speaking at a session Romulo Alvardo from Spain said that key challenges before dairy sector are market access, understanding the economics of the dairy sector and competence which could also be converted into opportunities.
The session was chaired by Helen Dornom, a delegate from Australia and General Manager – Sustainability, Dairy Australia. Others who participated included Romulo Alvardo, Project Manager, Dairy Development, Tetra Pak, Spain; Snorri Sigurdsson, Senior Project Manager, Aria Foods, Nigeria and Amit Vyas, Managing Director, Amul Dairy, Anand, Gujarat.
Salient features of IDF World Dairy Summit 2022
India will showcase its transformational journey through unique small-holder dairying primarily based on cooperative strategy.
During the technical sessions, some of the cabinet ministers are also expected to preside sessions.
The four-day long IDF WDS 22 assumes significance as a dominant majority of over eight crore dairy farmers in India are small and marginal (having at an average 2 bovines) making it the world’s numero uno dairying nation with an output of over 210 MT annually.
The summit will have 24 sessions centred around the theme “Dairy for Nutrition and Livelihood” covering different aspects of dairying. Three parallel technical sessions are being held for which more than 150 overseas and Indian speakers have been empanelled. A poster session is also being organised with the theme, “Innovations across Dairy Value Chain – Aligning with UN SDGs.”
There is a sizeable number of registrations for physical participation from the United States of America, France, Germany, Canada, New Zealand and Belgium.
The main sponsors of the event are Amul (Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation) and Nandini (Karnataka Milk Federation). The event is also sponsored by Mother Dairy, Delhi (MDFVPL), a wholly owned subsidiary company of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). Other sponsors include dairy cooperative federations, milk producer companies, private dairies and dairy equipment manufacturers.
The World Dairy Summit will be a great opportunity for dairy farmers, leaders, experts, scientists, professionals. journalists and academics to learn, connect and get inspired. India’s success story will be shared with the world through the IDF World Dairy Summit, where we can see how dairy an engine of development and women empowerment is.
