Dairy sector in India has acquired substantial growth momentum from 9th Plan onwards as a result of which we now rank first among the world’s milk producing nations, achieving an annual output of about 127.3 (anticipated) milliontonnes of milk during 2011-12 compared to 121.8 million tonnes in 2010-11. This represents sustained growth in the availability of milk and milk products for our growing population. Dairying has become an important secondary source of income for millions of rural families and has assumed the most important role in providing employment and income generating opportunities particularly for marginal and women farmers. The per capita availability of the milk has reached alevel of 281 grams per day during year 2010-11, but it is still lower than the world average of 284 grams per day. Most of themilk is produced by small, marginal farmers and landless labourers. About 14.46 million farmers have been brought under the ambit of 1, 44,168 village level dairy corporative societies up to March 2011.Government of India is making efforts for strengthening the dairy sector through various development schemes like Intensive Dairy Development Programme, Strengthening Infrastructure for Quality & Clean Milk Production, Assistance to Cooperatives and Dairy Entrepreneurship Development Scheme.In order to meet the rapidly growing demand for milk with a focus to improve milch animal productivity and increase milk production, the Government has approved National Dairy Plan Phase-I (NDP-I) in February, 2012 with a total investment of about Rs.2242 crore to be implemented from 2011-12 to 2016-17. NDP-I will help to meet the projected national demand of 150 million tonnes of milk by 2016-17 from domestic productionthrough productivity enhancement, strengthening and expanding village level infrastructure for milk procurement and provide producers with greater access to markets. The strategy involves improving genetic potential of bovines, producing required number of quality bulls, and superior quality frozen semen and adopting adequate bio-security measures etc. The scheme will be implemented by NDDB through end implementing agencieslike Dairy Cooperative Federations/Unions.NDP-I would focus on 14 major milk producing States - Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Kerala which account for over 90% of the country’s milk production. Coverage of NDP- I will however be across the country in terms of benefits accruing from the scheme.
