Mission Milk

National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) is ‘bullish’ over the National Dairy Plan (NDP), the ambitious plan to double India’s milk production by scientifically increasing productivity of milch cattle.
For the first phase of NDP, 10 projects to produce 510 high genetic merit (HGM) bulls by 2017-18 have been approved with financial outlay of Rs 155 crore. The first phase was launched as ‘Mission Milk’ at NDDB’s headquarters in Anand last year.
On Tuesday, NDDB chairman Dr Amrita Patel said 13 out of 14 major dairying states of the country are on the board and discussions are on with Bihar. The national steering committee has approved an outlay of Rs 130.71 crore for 2012-13 to implement the plan
In all, 49 project proposals in 13 states aimed towards animal nutrition, breeding and strengthening and expanding milk procurement at village level have been approved with outlay of Rs 329.89 crore so far.
With 37 breeds of cattle and 13 of buffaloes, India has a large bovine population with very rich bio-diversity.
NDP I will focus on production of HGM bulls through both progeny testing programme and pedigree selection programme. NDP I envisages production of 2500 HGM and disease free cattle and buffalo bulls and import of 400 Jersey and Holstein Friesian (HF) bulls.
At present, seven projects targeted to produce 410 bull calves of HF pure breed by Karnataka Milk Federation, crossbred HF by Sabarmati Ashram Gausala (SAG) at Bidaj in Gujarat, crossbred Jersey by Tamil Nadu Milk Federation, Murrah breed by Punjab Livestock Development Board and SAG, Gujarat and Mehsana breeds by Gujarat’s Banas and Mehsana dairies have been approved.
Three projects to produce 100 other bull calves of Kankrej, Gir and Jaffarabadi breeds by Banas dairy and SAG have been approved under the pedigree selection programme. Under NDDB’s project on indigenous breed development, programmes have been initiated for Rathi breed of cattle in its native tract of Bikaner and Shri Ganganagar districts in Rajasthan in partnership with Urmul Trust and for Kankrej breed in Banaskantha in part

NATIONAL DAIRY PLAN
Tenure : 15 years
Total Outlay : Rs 17,000 crore
First phase outlay : Rs 2,242 crore
India’s total milk processing capacity : 800 lakh litres per day

DAIRYING IN INDIA
70 million out of 150 million rural households involved in dairying
With 127 million tonnes, India is world’s largest milk producer since 1998
India has registered 4% incremental growth in milk in the last decade as against 2% world average
Per capita milk availability was 291 grams in 2011-12, better than 222 grams in 2001-02 but much below the global standard of 350 grams
Demand for milk is projected to be around 210 million tonnes in 2021-22