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The Minister of State for Agriculture Shri Taslimuddin informed the Rajya Sabha today that the production of milk in the country during the year 2003-04 and 2004-05 has been estimated at 88.1 million tonnes and 91.0 million tonnes respectively. The estimated production of milk for 2005-06 and 2006-07 is 93.5 million tonnes and 96.0 million tonnes respectively. The milk production at national level is by and large sufficient to meet the domestic demand. There is no authentic data on production of milk products in the country.
The Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries in Government of India is implementing the following schemes to increase the production of milk in the country:
1. National Project for Cattle and Buffalo Breeding.
2. Livestock Health and Disease Control.
3. Fodder Development Scheme.
4. Intensive Dairy Development Programme.
5. Assistance to Cooperatives.
6. Strengthening Infrastructure for Quality and Clean Milk Production.
The Minister said, to promote the exports of milk and milk products, following steps have been taken by Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) under Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
1. Standards have been laid down under Export (Quality Control and Inspection) Act, 1963 for export of milk products.
2. Financial assistance is provided by APEDA to the exporters for setting up of in house quality control laboratories and implementation of international quality systems. APEDA also extends assistance to the registered exporters for packaging development, market development etc.
3. Participation in the trade fairs to create awareness of Indian products including dairy products.
4. The Ministry of Commerce & Industry in the recently announced Foreign Trade Policy 2004-09 has extended the benefit of “Vishesh Krishi Upaj Yojana” to dairy sector also. Under the scheme, the exporters are entitled to duty credit scrip equivalent to 5 per cent of FOB value of exports for each licensing year. The scrip and the items imported against it would be freely transferable. The duty credit may be used for import of inputs or goods including capital goods.
UM/RC/Hb
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