Dairy Sector needs modernization of infrastructure to grow : Dr Harsh Kumar Bhanwala

As per Dr Bhanwala , chairperson NABARD, covid -19 may create opportunities for infrastructural reforms in dairy and agriculture sector. Current infrastructure in dairy is either not sufficient or not efficient enough to handle the increasing milk production and processing requirements. In cooperative sector there is an immediate need for modernizing of 75 lakh lpd and developing new facilities for 1.25 crore lpd which may require 5000 crores. Under current budget a new animal husbandry infrastructure development fund has also been formed. The chilling capacity in cooperative sector is highly skewed in Gujarat with nearly 46% of the total cooperative chilling capacity . Collectively small and marginal farmers in India owns 47% of farm land and 75% of the milch animals. High cost of land does not make large scale farming viable.  There is a shortage of

Concentrates, dry fodder and green fodder by 39%,36% and 57% respectively. This also requires new infrastructure under reforms. Atleast 60 % of  the breedable animals must be serviced with AI. For that total requirement of semen doses will be 200 mn against that only 115 mn are produced currently. The demand for value added products is going to increase from current 23% to around 30% by 2020 and for that the industry needs to gear up its infrastructure.