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India aims to increase annual milk output to 180 mn litre by 2021-2022
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Thursday, 07 February, 2013, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi
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fiogf49gjkf0d The Government of India is aiming to increase the annual milk production to the level of 180 million litre by 2021-22 under the National Dairy Plan (NDP). Currently, the milk production is around 128 million litre, and India is the largest producer of milk in the world. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said this while giving the presidential address on the occasion of the National Conference of State Ministers of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries here on February 6, 2013.
He urged the private sector to invest for expansion of milk chilling and processing capacities. In order to meet the demand for milk, the incremental annual production will now have to rise annually to an average of six million litre per year for over the next decade. For the past decade, the average growth has been 3.5 million litre a year.
“This would be achieved by increasing milch animal productivity by scientific breeding and nutrition programmes supported by effective control of animal diseases,” Pawar said, urging the states to focus on rightly implementation of the NDP, particularly with respect to breeding.
“The breeding strategy focusses on high-yielding animals, but they are less tolerant to adverse conditions, which are more likely to occur in the rain-fed areas. The strategy also needs a review, particularly in the context of risks of climate change. Therefore, extra emphasis should be upon developing indigenous breeds,” he added.
During the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, the expansion of agriculture intelligence (AI) network would be on the priority list. At present, the level of AI is 21 per cent, and the target is 35 per cent. Pawar informed that to address the subjects like animal diseases, unavailability of timely strategic vaccination and logistics, shortage of fodder and feed, need for development of pasture, grazing land, storage of fodder for cattle, management of animal nutrition, breed improvement and institutional credit, etc., the ministry has formulated a draft National Livestock Policy, which has been given to the states for their views.
The production of fish recorded a growth rate of around five per cent during the Eleventh Five-year Plan with net earnings of Rs 16,000 crore last year. But the major problems the sector is facing are stagnation of marine fishery, access to institutional credit, availability of quality fish seeds in time, along with the lack of infrastructure facilities.
Pawar said the north-eastern region, which has large water bodies, has rich potential in fisheries. The Twelfth Five-Year Plan will be focussing on services to farmers, increasing livestock production and shortage of feed and fodder. Further, the departments of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries proposed the reorientation of their schemes in order to provide more flexibility to states in formulating projects or interventions according to local conditions. Over the last year, 18 per cent of the funds under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY) were allocated to states for the livestock and fisheries sectors. The minister urged the states to allocate at least 25 per cent of resources available under RKVY for the said sector. Statistics India is the largest producer of milk, with a yield of 128 million litre. India is second largest producer of fish with an output of 8.6 million tonne. India has the largest livestock population with half the world's population of buffalo and one-sixth of the world's goat population. Last year, 14 per cent growth was recorded in meat production, and this sector contributes to 32 per cent of the agricultural sector's contribution to the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
National Animal Disease Reporting System Pawar officially launched the National Animal Disease Reporting System (NADRS). Its website, nadrs.gov.in, would prove information by means of computerised information of animal diseases linking each block/taluka, district and state headquarters to a central disease reporting and monitoring unit in Delhi. This would provide instant alerts about animal disease outbreaks, remedial measures, etc. The system would also generate daily incidence disease case reporting, creation of first information report of the outbreak and follow-up. Case reporting would incorporate the location details, case information, animal details like species, habitat, breed, etc., disease symptoms, gender and treatment details. NADRS has also software interface to accept disease information from the general public reported through the NADRS web portal, SMS, e-mail and IVRS. The information would help in generating GIS mapping and analytical modelling of animal diseases and the animal situation in the country.
The programme covers 6,350 blocks and 615 districts of the 28 states and seven Union Territories in the country.
Pawar also said the onion prices would get stable by this weekend, adding that the supplies from Nashik would get normalised by February 15, thus mitigating the inflation in onion prices.
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