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During 2018, India is forecast to produce 185 MT milk
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Monday, 01 October, 2018, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Anil Chawla
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India is the largest producer of milk in the world (excluding European Union, which does not really count as a country). More importantly, Indian milk production is constantly rising. Governments of India as well as different states are making continuous efforts to expand milk production.
While Government of India has set higher targets, it is reasonable to forecast that the country’s milk production will rise to about 247 million tonne during 2023-24 from the level of about 175 million tonne during 2017.
India produced around 108 million tonne of milk during 2007 of which cow milk accounted for about 43.4% of production and buffalo accounted for 52.5% of production. During 2018, India is forecast to produce 185 million tonne of milk with cow accounting for about 47.8% and buffalo for about 48.8% of milk production.
Cow is slowing becoming important in the country’s milk production challenging the prominent place enjoyed by buffalo. It is estimated that by the year 2021, cow will overtake buffalo in terms of contributing to the country’s milk production. In 2021, cow is estimated to contribute about 48.6% of milk production while buffalo’s contribution will be slightly lower at about 48.4%.
Faster growth in cow milk production is due to a number of reasons including government-sponsored breed improvement programmes and also because Indian research agencies and governments have largely ignored buffalo. Breed improvement programmes for buffalo have largely been much less effective than similar programmes for cow.
Easy availability of genetic material for superior breeds of cow is also one of the factors. Buffalo being largely indigenous to India and other countries of south / south-east Asia, identifying superior breeds has to be necessarily an indigenous effort unlike in case of cow where one can order semen from various commercial organisations across the world.
Mix of Milk Production in Leading Dairy States
Notably, in the chart, Kerala, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu are cow states with more than 90% of milk production coming from cows. It is no coincidence that these states permit slaughter of progeny of cow.
However, traditional dairy states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana rely largely on buffaloes. It should come as no surprise that most of India’s buffalo meat exports are from these buffalo states.
Apparently, it makes more economic sense to rear cow in a state where slaughter of cow progeny is permitted. This includes southern states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as eastern and north-eastern states. Meanwhile, through much of north and north-western India where killing a cow can land one in jail, it is more profitable to invest in a buffalo than in a cow.
If one looks at growth of milk production on a regional basis, one sees that Central India has been the fastest growing region with about 8.0% per annum growth from 2007-08 to 2016-17. Madhya Pradesh milk production grew at about 8.3% pa during this period while Chhattisgarh grew at about 5.3% pa.
Growth in central India was from a small base. Western India was the second-largest milk producing region of India 10 years ago. While even now it remains on second position, the region has recorded impressive growth with Rajasthan being the fastest growing in the country in milk production at 9.1% pa.
South
In the South table, if one combines milk production of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana one notices that milk production in the two states had been growing at about 7.3% pa during the above-mentioned period. This is certainly an impressive figure.
There is a vast difference in milk yield of different types of cows and buffaloes in India. An exotic cow can yield as much as about 11 kg of milk per day while a non-descript cow yields less than one fourth of that.
The difference in yields of superior and non-descript breeds in case of buffaloes is not that dramatic. While a superior breed indigenous buffalo yields about 5.9 kg/day, a non-descript buffalo gives only about 4 kg/day.
There is surely significant scope for improving genetic profile of bovine animals of India. Most of the indigenous breeds are well-adapted to Indian conditions and hence have high resistance to diseases. Making use of the exotic indigenous breeds of both cow and buffalo for overall improvement is needed.
It is heartening to note that Government of India is addressing various issues related to milk production and is looking forward to increase the milk production to 300 million tonne by 2023-24 (Source – Vision 2022, National Action Plan for Dairy Development, January 2018).
Note: BAHS – Basic Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Statistics 2017, AHS Series 18, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India.
(The author is managing director at Hindustan Studies & Services Ltd. He can be reached at hindustanstudies@gmail.com)
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