Milk output hit due to heat stress

Increasing spells of the summer heatwave in northwestern India, thought to be linked to the climate crisis, are hurting milk productivity, or output per cattle, while raising costs of production for farmers, a study by the flagship National Dairy Research Institute has found.

Climate scientists have warned that scorching heatwaves in India, among other extreme weather events, are certainly being driven by global warming, posing a risk to food output.

Milk productivity in the world’s largest producer has also been on a decreasing trend during summers due to heat stress, the recent study found.

The study found that each unit increase in the temperature humidity index — an indicator of thermal stress — above a so-called “critical level” significantly reduces the fortnightly milk productivity of dairy animals by 0.42-0.67% in northern Indian plains.

“A key risk to agriculture is the damage from unseasonal rain and heat patterns... Such weather shocks have become more frequent, intense, and worryingly, remain unpredictable,” said economist Dipti Deshpande of Crisil Ltd.