As India's dairy industry becomes more and more exposed to the world market, global prices for milk and the raw milk prices paid to Indian farmers are getting closer, opening up the possibility of significant imports.

The ongoing structural change among milk farmers is likely to gain momentum as general living conditions in India continue to improve. These developments threaten the backbone of India’s milk production: the family dairy farm based on 2-3 animals per farm, which utilize crop residuals as a feed source.

As the general salary level rises along with the ongoing prosperous development of India’s economy, family dairy farming might not be an adequate source of income anymore, resulting in fewer dairy farmers of this type and less milk production in this segment.

Unless the existing farming systems become more competitive, milk demand will rise faster than supply, making India a major importer of dairy products, like China.

This situation led to a recent dairy development workshop in Ludhiana, Punjab, India.

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Organized by the International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN), a global network of dairy researchers, the event brought together 57 participants of various stakeholders in the dairy chain. It was the first meeting to include all major private stakeholders in the dairy chain, from input suppliers to milk processors.

The workshop focused on the research question, "How to sustainably grow milk production in India at a price the consumer can afford?"

According to a workshop-related news release, the balance between the following opportunities to grow milk production has to be found:

  • Get more from the same – improve the productivity of the current traditional small-scale farming system especially with regard to breeding and feeding.
  • Get more from the new – establish new farming systems and upscale farm size. Once these new farming models allow family farmers to earn an income which is competitive with the rising salary level milk production will grow. The example of Punjab shows a structural change of farms moving towards progressive and commercial-oriented production systems. Large-scale dairy farms with more than 300 cows create opportunities for external investors entering the dairy sector. However, the difficulties to acquire good cows and experienced farm/herd management are the limiting factors.
  • Both ways of improvement require an appropriate knowledge transfer to any kind of dairy farm in order to support the sustainable development of milk supply.

By the end of the workshop, the consensus was that regular meetings would be valuable for the whole industry and also facilitate the possibility to express common opinions to official bodies and the public. PD

—From IFCN Dairy Research Center news release