India achieves targeted per capita consumption in milk

New Delhi, June 19: India has achieved the targeted per capita consumption of milk at 250 gram per day, says National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) Director A K Srivastava.
The per capita consumption of milk was 241 gram in 2005-06, he said, adding the targeted increase was achieved last year.

Srivastava said that the 250 gram per capita consumption per day was the recommendation of the Medical Council of India, which has since revised the target upward.

The NDRI Director also said that India's milk demand is likely to increase to 170 million tonnes by 2020 from the current 105 million tonnes.

India, the largest milk producer in the world, shares 15 per cent in the global output of 630 million tonnes, he said.

Pointing out that the livestock population in India is very large, Srivastava said the challenge is to increase the milk production and reduce the number of animals, including 280-290 million cattle as they emit maximum methane gas.

He said 80-100 kg of methane emission, considered one of the reasons for global warming, takes place per day from each cow or buffalo.

Apart from cattle, there are an estimated 120 million goats, 62 million sheep, 10 lakh horses and 500 million poultry birds add to the livestock sector in India, Srivastava said. PTI