“Digitisation of Indian dairy shall play paramount role in coming future”
India is one of the largest producers of milk across the globe. As per the National Diary Development Board, India's milk production has been growing by 35.61 per cent during the last six years to 198.4 million metric tonnes (MT) in 2019-20. In an email interview with Agrospectrum Rahul Kumar, CEO, Lactalis India shared his views about the future of the Indian Dairy sector. Edited excerpts –
How do you see the dairy sector 2030 ?
Indian dairy sector has been the sunrise sector for several decades. We are the largest producer of milk across the globe for the last three decades and have been growing 5-6 per cent Year-onyear. We have doubled the milk production in the last 15 years. Looking at the future, the Indian dairy sector will grow at the same pace owing to increased local demand as well as the immense possibility of exports. By 2030, India will manage to produce 400-500 million MT of milk with a quantum jump from the present production of 195 million MT. However, this would need a complete change in approach if the Indian dairy industry has to cross the milestone.
Do you think that the current supply chain is good enough to bear the burden of growing population ?
In any agricultural produce, the supply chain plays a very important role even in the dairy sector. Milk requires a very efficient supply chain due to its perishable nature. India has achieved good success in handling milk from 10 crores dairy farmers producing 55-60 crore litre milk per day, still, we have to travel a long distance as we need to reach a minimum target of 80 per cent of processed milk in the coming future. Cold chain and processing units are keys that require huge investment, awareness and emphasis on quality.
How we can overcome the hurdles ?
These hurdles can only be removed by dairy companies ensuring support to dairy farmers.
This needs awareness, training and close working with milk producers. Problems such as milk with antibiotics, aflatoxins can be only be resolved with training and awareness and providing premium prices to good quality milk, which is not in place presently. Tremendous efforts are needed to propagate silage, appropriate feed during various stages of cattle milk cycle, better farm practices starting from proper shed design, water availability, cow comfort, vaccinations, balanced rations etc. must be ensured to make Indian dairying more efficient, more remunerative for farmers and ensuring global quality.
where does India’s dairy sector stands when it comes to digitisation ?
Digitisation of Indian dairy shall play paramount role in coming future. Firstly, it will enable the farmers to tag animals with Radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips to identify them with precise details of their breed and genetic potential. Proper identification with details in the central database would lead to scientific breeding via proper artificial insemination to improve breed and tap the full genetic potential. The management of ration, disease and yield can only be done by proper use of IT. Digitisation would help tremendously to improve efficiency of dairy and yield per cattle which is must looking to limited resources we have in India.