The country is the world's largest milk producer for the past two decades and its credit goes to the farmers of the country: Shri Radha Mohan Singh

Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Shri Radha Mohan Singh has said that the National Dairy Project (NDP) aims to increase the productivity of milch animals which will lead to increase in milk production for meeting growing demand for milk.

Shri Radha Mohan Singh said that the productivity of milch animals is increasing through artificial insemination using high-quality semen taken from high genetic bulls and by proving balanced food to the animals of the farmers. To promote balanced diet for the effective use of input, NDP initiatives are helping farmers to increase production by lowering dietary (Ration) costs.

Shri Singh said that the country has been the world's largest producer of milk for the last two decades and its credit goes to the farmers of the country. Since more than two-thirds of our nation's citizens live in rural areas, therefore, there is a need to make the farmers more prosperous, for which dairy sector is important.

Union Agriculture Minister said that NDDB has implemented several major dairy development programs including 'Operation Flood' from its inception in the country. India is at number one in milk production and contributes 19 percent of the world's total milk production. Dairy farmers' income has increased by 13.79 percent in the year 2014-17 compared to the year-ago period. Milk production, which was 155.49 million tonnes during 2015-16, is planned to increase it to 200 million tonnes in 2019-20. Presently, NDDB is in the leading role for the implementation of the National Dairy Plan (NDP) and the recently announced Dairy Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF). The Central Government has established dairy infrastructure development fund (DIDF) at the cost of Rs.10,881 crore for the period from 2017-18 to 2028-29.

The purpose of the DIDF is to establish an effective mechanism for creating a basic structure for milk cooling at village level and installing electronic equipment for milk adulteration, manufacturing/modernization/processing facilities and for procuring milk. Educational institutes would set up for value-added products for milk unions/milk producers companies.

The purpose of NDP-1 is to help in increasing the productivity of milch animals and thereby increase the milk production to meet the growing demand of milk and to provide more assistance to rural milk producers for more market access, including organized milk processing sector. During the year 2015-16, NDP-1 has been expanded into four states (Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Telangana, and Uttarakhand) and its implementation period has been extended to 2018-19.

Shri Radha Mohan Singh said that under the able leadership of the Prime Minister, on the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement, under the 'Sankalp se Siddhi Mission', the Central Government has set a target to double the income of farmers by 2022. For this, recently, a seven-point strategy has been unveiled. Ministry of Agriculture is working in this direction through various schemes in the dairy sector.

Shri Singh said that his experience indicates that producer-centric institutions are very important for dairy development. Union Agriculture Minister said that the selection of Dairy Excellence Awards has been done fairly and the producer-centric institution which has achieved excellence in operation, administration, and inclusion have been honoured with Dairy Excellence Award where the winners will be encouraged to maintain their performance, it is expected that by learning from these role models, others will be motivated to achieve excellence. Shri Radha Mohan Singh gave his best wishes to the award winners.

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