World milk day was celebrated on June 1, 2020 through out the
out the world. It was declared as world milk day in 2011 by FAO. The purpose was to acknowledge the efforts of dairy farmers and promote milk as a global food. In India multiple stakeholders organized webinars and celebrated the occasion by inviting expert insights on dairy related topics. Indian Dairy Association organized large scale webinars for their members in West, South and North Zones. In North zone the theme of webinar was on “Engaging migrant workers in Dairying activities”.
Webinar was presided by Dr G S Rajorhia, president IDA. He mentioned the need to set up micro units for processing indigenous milk products like khoa, ghee, paneer etc at the rural level and engaging migrant labour by imparting them necessary skills. Dairy fraternity however will have to take the lead to establish market linkages. He also asked everyone to reimagine future product developments in the area of immunity boosting variant in functional and fermented dairy products. He assured that the valuable outcome of this webinar will be forwarded to Government for necessary actions.
Dr Omveer Singh MD NDDB services , as a key note speaker emphasized on forming cooperatives and Farmer producer organizations as a best way to engage migrant workers who have gone back to their villages. He also stated this problem to be temporary and mainly has occurred due to anxiety and distress during the lockdown. Dr Singh was very positive on increase in per capita consumption of milk and milk products post covid due to shift of some part of population from other animal products.
Mr Radhey Shyam Dixit, MD, Ananda Dairy shared the exemplary work being carried out by their Ananda Foundation in western and Central UP. Farmer’s engagement through skilling and appropriate support in animal health and animal feed are the key activities carried out by the Foundation. Market linkage through rural youth participation is a disruptive entrepreneurial program run by Ananda Foundation. He also launched the first ever chocolate flavored probiotic dahi during his this webinar.
Mr Kuldeep Sharma moderated the session and made a fact based presentation on migrant population. He emphasized that this is the right time to push all initiative for doubling the farmer’s income program so as to curb livelihood related migration at the first place. He also mentioned that the policies must be targeted as per the data available for male migration outflow at district levels. Nearly 17 districts from UP, Bihar and Odissha accounts for 25% of the total migration population in the country.
