October 17, 2026 09:50 am (IST)
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Economic Survey: India leads in global milk production
New Delhi, Feb 25 (IBNS) The Economic Survey 2015-16 presented in the Parliament on Friday by the Union finance minister Arun Jaitley revealed that India ranks first in global milk production, accounting for 18.5 per cent of world production, with an annual output of 146.3 million tonnes in 2014-15.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has reported a 3.1 per cent increase in world milk production from 765 million tonnes in 2013 to 789 million tonnes in 2014.
Milk production in 2014-15 went up 6.26 per cent compared to 137.69 million tonnes produced in 2013-14.
The Survey has emphasized that the Indian agricultural system is predominantly a mixed crop-livestock farming system, with the livestock segment supplementing farm incomes by providing employment, draught animals and manure.
The per capita availability of milk in India has increased from 176 grams per day in 1990-91 to 322 grams per day by 2014-15. It is more than the world average of 294 grams per day during 2013. This represents a sustained growth in availability of milk and milk products for the growing population.
Dairying has become an important secondary source of income for millions of rural households engaged in agriculture.
The success of the dairy industry has resulted from the integrated co-operative system of milk collection, transportation, processing and distribution, conversion of the same to milk powder and products, to minimize seasonal impact on suppliers and buyers, retail distribution of milk and milk products, sharing of profits with the farmer, which are ploughed back to enhance productivity and needs to be emulated by other farm produce/producers.
In the poultry segment, the Government’s focus, besides framing suitable policies for enhancing commercial poultry production, is for strengthening the family poultry system, which addresses livelihood issues.
Both egg and fish production has also registered an increasing trend over the years.
Egg production was around 78.48 billion eggs in 2014-15, while poultry meat production was estimated at 3.04 MT.
Fisheries constitute about 1 per cent of the GDP of the country and 5.08 per cent of agriculture GDP.
The total fish production during 2014-15 was 10.16 MT, and production during the last quarters of 2015-16 has also shown an increasing trend, estimated at 4.79 MT (provisional).
There is increasing significance of poultry and livestock products in the context of diversifying farm and non-farm activities in the agriculture sector to increase livelihood security.
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