No reports received on milk, its products shortage by Govt: Rupala
The center said that milk purchases in the country increased by 5.6 percent in June.
Responding to a query in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday as to whether there is a shortage of milk in the country, Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairy Industry said that no report of shortage of milk and dairy products had been received in the country. “Milk purchases in June 2023 increased by 5.6 percent compared to last year,” he said.
Referring to inputs from major dairy cooperatives, he said stocks of skimmed milk powder increased from 1.16 thousand tons in May to 1.3 liters in June.
Pointing out that the Animal Husbandry and Dairy Department of the Government of India does not regulate the buying and selling prices of milk in the country, he said that prices are set by cooperative and private dairies based on production cost and market forces.
The Animal Husbandry and Dairy Products Department is implementing dairy development plans to help improve milk production and meet the growing demand for milk and dairy products in the country. He said these schemes provide assistance in terms of input services, disease control, breed improvement, etc. apart from establishing dairy infrastructure to support access to milk markets, profitable price among others, throughout the year which helps to boost the income of farmers across the country.
Promotion of cows
As to another question about the ‘Desi’ (Indigenous) beef varieties, he said that the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-Central Livestock Research Institute (CIRC), Meerut, is working on an Indigenous Breeds (IBP) project under the All-India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Cattle for Breeding and Genetic Improvement of important Sahiwal cattle breeds, such as Gyor, and their genetic improvement.
The program encourages the breeding of Gir and Kankrej cattle in farmers’ herds to increase milk production. Doses of frozen semen from these strains have also been disseminated to inseminate females in farmers’ herds for large-scale breeding.
He said ICAR’s National Dairy Research Institute is also working on the original Tharparkar breed of cows, along with Gir and Sahiwal.
collaborative database
Meanwhile, Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah, in a written response, said that the Union Cooperation Ministry is developing a comprehensive national cooperative database in phases. Mapping of about 2.64 lakh primary cooperative societies from three sectors – Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), Dairy and Fisheries – was completed in February under the first phase.
Under the second phase, the mapping of cooperative societies/national federations has been completed.
Under the third phase, the database is expanded to include the remaining cooperative societies operating in all other sectors. He said that the National Collaborative Database would be released upon completion of data collection under the third phase.
Records of oilseed production
In a written response to a question about oilseeds and edible oil production in the country, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare said that the government is making continuous efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in edible oils in the country.
Thanks to the continuous efforts of the government, oilseed production is at an all-time high. Production increased from 315.22 liters in 2018-19 to 409.97 liters in 2022-23.
He said that the production of edible oil increased from 103.52 liters in 2018-2019 to 123.25 liters in 2022-2023.