State has highest per capita milk availability: Study - Agrarian state records slowest growth rate of milk production, per capita availability amid top 20 states

Tuesday, 01/07/2014

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Chandigarh : Punjab has recorded highest per capita milk availability of 937 grams per day according to the latest available data of 2010-11, though the same has dipped by about two per cent from the level of 957 grams per day as of 2006-07, noted a recent Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) study.

“With about eight per cent share in India’s total milk production of about 121 million tonne (MT), Punjab is ranked fourth with annual milk production of 9.4 MT,” revealed a study titled, “Unlocking growth of potential of Indian dairy industry”, conducted by Assocham.

However, the state has registered slowest growth rate in milk production of just about three per cent during the five year period of 2006-07 and 2010-11, which was below All India growth rate of about 19 per cent and the state was ranked at the last rung in this behalf amid top 20 states, highlighted the study conducted by the Assocham Economic Research Bureau.

“Besides, with dairy output worth over Rs 3,600 crore, Punjab ranked seventh with about six per cent share in total dairy output worth over Rs 60,255 crore,” noted the Assocham study.

“While Punjab is ranked sixth in terms of direct employment being generated in registered dairy units and the state has a share of about four per cent in 1,493 registered dairy factories across India,” it mentioned.

While Andhra Pradesh has recorded highest growth in terms of both milk production and per capita milk availability thereby clocking a growth rate of over 41 per cent and about 36 per cent during the five year period from 2006 to 2010, Punjab ranked third in terms of milk production with over 1.1 MT of milk produced annually.

Apart from AP, the states of Rajasthan (28 per cent), Kerala (24.8 per cent), Karnataka (24 per cent) and Gujarat (23.7 per cent) were amid top five states in terms of clocking high growth in milk production.

“Milk production across India has grown at a significant rate of about 19 per cent during the aforesaid period with overall milk production crossing 121 MT mark as of 2010-11, but despite being the largest milk producer in the world, per capita milk availability in India at 252 grams fell below the global average of 279 grams per person per day,” said Assocham national secretary general D S Rawat while releasing the chamber’s study, here on Monday.

“It is imperative for India’s dairy industry to streamline its value chain processes and integrate the smallholder dairy producers into the processing value chain in order to improve the overall performance of the industry, more so as they possess inherent strengths like low production costs, lower liabilities and limited liquidity risk,” said Rawat, while stating that however, lack of knowledge and technical know-how, poor access to support services, limited access to credit and poor milk quality together limit the ability of smallholder dairy producers to take advantage of market opportunities.

New Zealand (9,773 grams), Ireland (3,260 grams) and Denmark (2,411 grams) were the top three countries in terms of per capita milk availability.