New Delhi: There has been a remarkable growth in production and consumption of milk and dairy products in India in the last nine years.
So much so that India is currently the largest producer of milk in the world, contributing 24% of global milk production.
India’s milk production has registered 61% increase in nine years – up from from 137.7 million tonnes in 2013-14 to 221.1 million tonnes in 2021-22, according to a release from PIB’s Research Unit.
The per capita availability of milk has gone up from 303 gram/day in 2013-14 to 444 gram/day in 2021-22.
The dairy sector has been a major contributor to the growth of India’s rural economy in India.
The industry employs more than 80 million people, with the majority being small and marginal farmers as well as the landless.
Significantly, women constitute the major workforce of the country’s dairy sector, which therefore plays a leading role in women’s empowerment.
The Union government has strengthened the dairy farming infrastructure through initiatives like implementation of Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund, distribution of Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) and launching of Rashtriya Gokul Mission to boost productivity and milk output.
