Dairy Industry Conference

Why is in news? Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah attends the 49th Dairy Industry Conference organized by Indian Dairy Association as chief guest at Gandhinagar, Gujarat

The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation has attended the 49^th Dairy Industry Conference organized by the Indian Dairy Association (IDA) as the chief guest at Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

This year’s conference theme is “India Dairy to the world: Opportunities & Challenges”.

The conference will be a platform for all professionals to come together and discuss global dairy trends, farm innovations, sustainability within the sector, climate change, nutrition, and health in India with the singular objective of making India the mecca of dairy innovations and solutions.

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 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.

The Indian Dairy Association was established soon after independence the in 1948, and IDA has been instrumental in the development of the dairy sector in the country.

Indian Dairy Association:

Established in 1948, Indian Dairy Association (IDA) is the apex body of the dairy industry in India.

The members are from the cooperatives, MNCs, corporate bodies, private institutions, educational institutions, government and public sector units.

IDA functions very closely with the dairy producers, professionals & planners, scientists & educationists, institutions and organisations associated with the development of dairying in India.

The IDA since has a history of around six decades now, it has had the privilege of being headed by several Presidents and some of them were of national and international fame.

The Association is managed by an apex policy making body called the Central Executive Committee (CEC).

The CEC is headed by President and supported by two Vice-Presidents and 19 Executive Committee Members.

The IDA's Head Quarter is in Delhi.

National Dairy Development Board:

The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) is a statutory body set up by an Act of the Parliament of India in 1965. It is under the ownership of the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying of the Government of India.

The NDDB was founded by Dr. Verghese Kurien in 1965, to replace exploitation with empowerment, tradition with modernity, stagnation with growth, transforming dairying into an instrument for the development of India’s rural people.

The National Dairy Development Board -- initially registered as a society under the Societies Act 1860 -- was merged with the erstwhile Indian Dairy Corporation, a company formed and registered under the Companies Act 1956, by an Act of India's Parliament - the NDDB Act 1987 (37 of 1987), with effect from 12 October, 1987.

NDDB's programmes and activities seek to strengthen farmer owned institutions and support national policies that are favourable to the growth of such institutions. Fundamental to NDDB's efforts are cooperative strategies and principles.

NDDB’s efforts transformed India’s rural economy by making dairying a viable and profitable economic activity for millions of milk producers while addressing the country’s need for self-sufficiency in milk production.

NDDB has been reaching out to dairy farmers by implementing other income generating innovative activities and offering them sustainable livelihood.