Dairying is possibly as old as civilization of mankind, yet the global experts said at the IDF World Dairy Summit 2022 at Greater Noida that its business is bigger than tech giants Apple and Microsoft put together.
At 800 billion dollars is the consumer value of dairying business and it is “bigger than the combined revenue” of Apple and Microsoft, said Dr Torsten Hemme, CEO, IFCN AG Germany, while addressing a session titled ‘Evolution of Dairying: A Livelihood Perspective’ at the ongoing summit, inaugurated by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
During 2014-19, of the total revenue more than 70% was accounted for by the milk farmers, he said in his presentation.
Chairman of National Dairy Development Board Shri Meenesh Shah said that dairying holds equal importance in both developed and developing world, as more than one billion people across the world are dependent on dairying for their livelihood.
Earlier, Shri Shah had projected that India’s dairy business would grow from Rs. 13 trillion at present to Rs. 30 trillion by 2027.
Another eminent expert who spoke in this session were Dr. S. Rajkumar, Professor at RIVER, Puducherry who equaled dairy evolution to the livelihood evolution in India and elsewhere and called upon the dairy industry that “participation of women in improving productivity from cows and buffalos is clearly the need of the hour.”
This summit is an annual meeting of the global dairy sector, bringing together participants from all over the world. The participants’ profile includes CEOs and employees of dairy processing companies, dairy farmers, suppliers to the dairy industry, academicians and government representatives etc.
key features of IDF World Dairy Summit: WDS is a great way of gaining global exposure for the Indian industry which will attract attention to the smallholder milk production system of India and raise awareness. An exhibition space of over 6,900 square metre will be available to the exhibitors for showcasing activities.
India is leading the world dairy sector with a 6 per cent growth, three times the global growth along with per capita availability of 427 grams per day. Milk is the single largest agricultural commodity in the country valued at Rs 9.32 lakh crore and accounting for 23 percent of the global share.
In India milk production activity is mostly done by small and marginal dairy farmers with an average herd size of 2-3 animals. India has a diverse genetic pool of magnificent indigenous cattle and buffalo breeds-193 million cattle and about 110 million buffaloes, the largest genetic pool in the World.
