Indian Dairy Sector

India is self sufficient in milk and the world’s top milk producer as well as consumer. India’s dairy sector is unique in many aspects. It has a unique smallholder milk production system, wherein more than 70 percent of dairy farmers own either 1 or 2 animals. Dairying in India is more about livelihoods to about 80 million rural households than simply a business. It provides a stable cash flow as compared to crop cultivation. There is a large network of dairy institutions, providing market access to the dairy farmers. Around 60-70 percent of consumer rupee flows back to producers, which is highest in the world. Milk is India’s single largest agricultural commodity in terms of value amounting to approximately USD 118 billion.

India is home to about 19 percent of in-milk cattle and 63 percent of in-milk buffaloes in the world. It has a very rich reservoir of genetic diversity and possesses some of the best breeds of cattle and buffaloes in the world. 50 well-defined breeds of cattle and 19 of buffaloes are well adapted to the local environment. Milk and milk products are important constituents of Indian food basket. Due to a number of factors like growing population, rising income and increasing urbanization, the demand for milk and milk products is steadily growing. India’s efforts are aimed at meeting this increasing demand to continue to maintain self sufficiency and nutritional security in a sustainable way – socially, economically and environmentally.