NDDB draws National Dairy Plan, targets 180 mt milk by 2021

Hyderabad, Oct 26 (UNI) National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) Chairperson Amrita Patel today said the Board has drawn up a National Dairy Plan (NDP) to achieve the projected demand of 180 million tonnes (MT) of milk production by 2021-22.

Delivering the J Raghotham Reddy memorial lecture on 'Securing the future of dairying in a rapidly changing environment,' here, she said under the plan a target has been set to produce five mt of milk every year to meet the projected demand of 180 mt by 2021.

At present, about 2.5 mt of milk was being produced every year in the country, she added.

Stating that the NDP would cover the entire country, she said 85 per cent of milk was produced in 324 districts. The remaining 282 districts, where the potential for dairying was yet to be developed, would be covered under the plan through a different approach.

Pointing out that state governments were not paying enough attention on improving milk yields by Artificial Insemination (AI), Ms Amita said the NDP suggested that bovines be procured by selected organisations through 'progeny test' in the country. These organisations would be accountable for producing approximately 1400 genetically-superior bulls of different breeds annually for semen production.

Asking the semen production units to adopt international standards, she said the NDDB was planning to upgrade 25 top semen stations to increase the semen production from 40 million doses to 140 million doses by 2021.

Stressing the need to rejuvenate the cooperative sector to meet the challenges from rapidly growing private sector, she said NDDB would finance and support them.

UNI