‘Separate ministry will ensure better focus on dairy sector’

Vadodara/ Anand: Amul has welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to have a separate ministry for animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries.
This is for the first time that a government at the centre has formed a separate department for animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries.
According to Ramsinh Parmar, chairman of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) , there are 30 crore bovine population in the country.
Dairying and animal husbandry contributes around Rs 7.7 lakh crore per year which is around 4.2% of national GDP and has emerged as a primary source of income for about seven crore rural households – most of them either landless, small or marginal farmers.
“Milk is the largest agriculture crop of India and total value of produced is around Rs 7 lakh crore which is more than the total value of all pulses and grain put together,” he said.
“It is therefore most appropriate that a separate ministry is created which would ensure proper focus and right budget and resource allocation that the sector required,” he said.
He also welcomed centre’s decision to allocate separate budget to control foot and mouth disease (FMD) and brucellosis
GCMMF’s managing director R S Sodhi informed that milk producer members are losing around 80-90% of milk when infected with FMD and around 25-30% when infected with brucellosis. “By vaccinating all bovine animals against FMD and brucellosis, we can reduce the milk production loss which is directly beneficial to milk producer members,” he said.