NDDB organises seminar on cenvergence of productivity enhancement activities

Anand, 26 August 2014: The National Dairy Development Board organised a two day seminar-cum-workshop on Convergence of Productivity Enhancement Activities to Meet Future Demand of Milk & Milk Products at NDDB, Anand on 25-26 August 2014. State Secretaries, Directors of Animal Husbandry, Managing Directors of State Milk Federations and other state representatives from the major dairying states deliberated on all relevant issues related to productivity enhancement and health management to develop state specific action plans.

In his inaugural address, Shri T Nanda Kumar, Chairman NDDB said, “It is an established scientific fact that the genetic potential of bovines can be optimally harvested, provided that breeding, feeding, scientific dairying practices and health management are adopted on a large scale, by all the stakeholders. Concerned milk procurement and processing infrastructure also need to be strengthened to link milk producers with the market, while ensuring quality through cold chain. All these initiatives need to be scaled up, so that a large number of milk producers are covered’’. Chairman NDDB said that country’s estimated demand for milk is likely to be about 155 million tonnes by 2016-17 and around 200 million tonnes in 2021-22. To meet the growing demand, there is a need to increase the annual incremental milk production from 4 million tonnes per year in past 10 years to 7.8 million tonnes in the next 8 years (210 million by 2021-22). NDDB’s NDP I is a scientifically planned multi-state initiative to increase the productivity of milch animals and thereby increase milk production to meet the rapidly growing demand for milk. NDP I is focussing on 14 major milk producing states, which accounts for more than 90 per cent of the country’s milk production, over 87 per cent of the breedable cattle and buffalo population and; 98 per cent of the country’s fodder resources. Benefits of NDP I however will be across the country.

Shri Anup Kumar Thakur, Secretary, Dept of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries, Govt of India stressed the need for indigenous breed development and ensuring adequate quality fodder for indigenous cows. Shri Thakur said that extension through village level institutes and use of IT sector should be promoted. He requested all participants to utilise NDDB’s Information Network for Animal Productivity & Health (INAPH). Reporting diseases through the national disease reporting system and significance of vaccination were also emphasised. Dr Suresh S Honnappagol, Animal Husbandry Commissioner, Dept. of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries, Govt of India highlighted the importance of animal breeding, nutrition and health along with milk processing. He also emphasised the need for sensitising the field personnel and farmers involved in milk production. Dr A K Srivastava, Director, NDRI spoke on significance of input activities for improving productivity.

Earlier, in his welcome address, Shri Dilip Rath, Managing Director, NDDB shared his thoughts onenhancing milch animal productivity for achieving sustainable growth in milk production in the context of the unique small holder system. Shri Rath discussed about a few critical conditions associated with the productivity enhancement interventions (Genetic improvement, Animal Nutrition and Animal Health & management): A scientific approach is adopted requiring strict adherence to laid down Standard Operating Procedures and Protocols supported by ICT tools against each of these interventions, Implementing agencies themselves need high levels of expertise and professionalism, autonomy and accountability, and Last mile delivery mechanisms are institutionalised at grass root level aimed at providing doorstep services to the milk producers. He appealed to all the participants to provide every support to the implementing agencies in terms of providing requisite manpower with tenural stability as well as greater autonomy along with accountability. “Only then can we be able to optimize convergence and get the desired results to hasten the pace of productivity enhancement in a sustainable manner’’ Shri Rath concluded.

While addressing the participants at the concluding session, Chairman NDDB said that Dairy Board is always there to serve the dairy farmers. In absence of accelerated growth and better business performance, millions of dairy farmers will be left out of the cooperative domain. Only true professionalism, transparency in governance and management will give our farmers their rightful and deserved place in our agricultural economy. Convergence of NLM, RKVY, NRLM and other government schemes of DADF were also discussed in detail.

Presentations were made on Technological Interventions in Feed and Nutrition for Enhancing Productivity, Overview of Animal Breeding projects approved under NDP I, Progress of PT/PS projects sanctioned under NDP I and bottlenecks in implementation, Progress of semen station strengthening projects sanctioned under NDP I and bottlenecks in implementation, Application of Genomics, Convergence for Animal Health, Bio-security for Bull and Semen Production, overview of INAPH, Status of Milk Processing Infrastructure with Dairy Coops and challenges on their modernisation, Mapping the proposed and active villages under NDP I in the internet based Dairy Geographical Information System (i-DGIS), Convergence with other Government schemes.

Topics deliberated during the technical sessions: Implementation of RBP beyond NDP I, Increased coverage of animals with mineral mixture feeding & bypass protein/fat, Increased use of certified fodder seeds, Securing crop residues from the surplus areas, Autonomy to livestock development boards/agencies, Effective implementation of breeding policies, Doorstep delivery of AI by the LDBs at actual cost, Action on use of poor quality semen produced by C and D grade semen stations/non-graded private semen stations, Availability of exclusive man power, Accreditation of AI training centres and Ensuring bio-security of semen stations.