SYNOPSIS:- With the recent happenings in Tamil Nadu in
connection with JALLIKATTU, too much of social media activity encountered
denigrating efforts taken in our country in enhancing milk production. There
were repeated noises all was not well with breed development, dairy development
and related extension work. We have also seen Pseudo specialists in the field
of medicine attributing all ill health to A1 Milk which is found to be from
exotic foreign breed. This article tries to dispel these myths and attributes
the growth in the field of dairying to focused breed development work. It also
emphasizes sustained efforts that are needed to study rigorously A 1 and A 2
Milk and reassures common man that there is no need to press the “ Emergency”
button !
Dairying Scenario:-
Every scientific progress and development always bring along
with it related controversies which may crop up as per the socio economical
development of that region. This is true right from electricity, steam engine,
nuclear fuel, atomic energy and what not. Dairy industry is no exception. As someone with exposure to Indian Dairy
Industry I wish to go through various facts and figures that are relevant to
Indian Dairy Industry to reassure the common man that all s not lost due to
exotic breeds of cattle.
Dairy Industry in India is not an organized one. It is still
in evolving stage and it by and large complements agriculture industry. Indian farmers rear cattle as a means to help
them in their farming activities. Agricultural by products like straw are fed
to cows and predominantly buffaloes to rear them. Bulls are used in the farm as
draught animals in ploughing, hauling agricultural inputs and farm output. As a predominantly Hindu populated country
culling and slaughtering of cattle especially cows is considered sacrilege in
India. Therefore cattle are more or less taken care as part of the family and
revered.
Yield of milk of Indian breeds is not comparable to foreign
breed. It is far too low and Dairying was not considered to be an income
generation activity but more as a source of additional income to the housewives
who took the trouble of taking care of the animals apart from taking care of
the family needs only marketable surplus was sold to a few customers.
Average daily requirement of milk for a normal healthy human
being in India was ……ml. This was hardly met by the poor milch animals of local
origin. Thus as a prudent and long term vision oriented decision it was decided
to enhance the breed quality of local milch animals and cross breeding was
vastly encouraged. This was purely taking into the need of the hour when availability
of milk was very poor, scarcity rampant. We were banking on various world food
programmes to get aids in the form of inputs like milk powder, butter oil which
were blended and marketed all over the country using various NDDB ( National
Dairy Development Board ) initiated programmes. Mother Dairies were set up in
major metros. The major focus was on enhancing availability of milk which is
fresh, pure and wholesome to growing urban population. There used to be so much
hulla holla about milk which was supposed to be feeding rural poor being
brought and marketed in towns and cities thus depriving rural poor of
nutrition.
But with success of AMUL’s model Dairy Development in India
was said to have ushered in women empowerment, literacy among rural masses,
awareness on social issues like family planning, Good House Keeping as clean
milk production was a focus point. There were a few orgainsed MNCs and
corporate houses involved in processing milk as every big business house was
mainly focused in Dairy Products which was bringing in good returns. Thus
liquid milk was being handled by Amul, Mother Dairies, State Federation, Rural
Co-operatives etc.
Despite massive efforts by AMUL, Mother Dairy and local
co-operatives unorganized sector was also playing a major role in regulating
milk supply to cities.
In this background, if you see the way we have grown in
raising availability of milk in India, we have every reason to feel proud.
Despite various hue and cry which are emanating when there is plenty of
marketable surplus of milk and milk products which even makes way into export markets
in the form of milk powder, ghee etc.
We need to appreciate the visionary leadership of Dr. C Subramaniam
Former Finance Minister who was responsible for giving free hand to genetics
and breeding scientists in the field of agriculture like Dr. M S Swaminathan
for ushering in Green Revolution in India which gave food security to masses
living in this great land & Dr V
Kurien who was instrumental in ushering in White Revolution by arranging and
channelizing aids received in various forms.
The table below shows the trend of milk production in India
and the per capita availability of milk in India.
Year MMT (
Million Metric Tons) Per Capita Availability / person/ day ( ml)
1991-92 55.6 178
1992-93 58.0
182
1993-94 60.6 187
1994-95 63.8
194
1995-96 66.2 197
1996-97 69.1 202
1997-98 75.4
213
2012-13 132.4 299
2013-14 137.7 307
2014-15 146.3 322
2015-16 155.5 340
We can see from the above table sourced from NDDB there is a
great leap in the volume of milk production in our country and this is made
possible by cross breeding. This growth is 18.5 % of total milk production of
the world and we rank No.1 in global production of milk. As compared to other
countries our growth is 6.26% as against the global average growth of 3.1% year
on year basis.
As per Nutritional requirement average adult requirement of
milk per day per person is 200 ml to 248 ml depending on the physical and
physiological condition. Thus there is enough milk made available by various
initiatives of Indian scientists.
Now coming to the
crux of A1 & A2 milk after having made milk available to the masses this
question can be addressed very easily.
India is predominantly a buffalo milk country 55 % of milk
production is from buffaloes as the same seems to be very favorable for the
farmers in terms of economics. 21% of
the total milk production is from Indigenous breeds of cattle and 24% of the
total milk production is from Cross bred cows. This is as per 2007 statistics.
If you go by this the issue of A1 & A2 milk crops up
only with respect to the 24% of the milk received from Cross bred animals as
Buffalo milk is purely A 2 milk, which is being praised as the elixir of good
health. People now have issues with only A1 Milk. The research in this field is
not very conclusive and scientific community still does not buy the claim of
all bad things attributed to A1 Milk.
Some of the whatsapp messages like indigenous cow milk
because of the hump is rich in vitamin and it absorbs sun light therefore
yellow in color are dubious claim. Cows
because they do not metabolize all Carotein into vitamin A passes the same
carotein into milk therefore it is yellow in color.
Another claim that A1 milk causes virtually all diseases in
medical encyclopedia like Down’s syndrome,
spastic child, mental disorders, diabetes, Hypertension etc. If we go by the per capita consumption of milk
in some of the developed countries we would be wondering whether all the people
in these countries who consume predominantly A1 milk should be sick and in
death bed. This is not the case as these people are leading normal life ! Please find attached table of top ten milk
consuming countries in the world.
CONCLUSION:-Let
us celebrate the achievements made by dairy industry in India which is not a
small order one. No breed local, imported, cross bred can be a permanent “ fool
proof” solution. As things are very dynamic in nature, we need to constantly
research and bring in good things from various countries. If Kangeyam cattle is
bred and made as the draught animal in Brazil we should feel proud and
encourage local farmers to appreciate the good things in local and breeds from
abroad. May be one day we will be
exporting semen of our native breeds abroad as the same is being done with our
Murrah buffaloes !!
Country Annual
Milk Consumption / Person / Annum
Luxemburg 266.0
Kg
Romania 266.2
Kg
Denmark 281.0
Kg
Lithuania 303.0
Kg
Montenegro 306.0
Kg
Greece 315.0
Kg
Switzerland 316.0
Kg
Netherland 320.0
Kg
Sweden 356.0
Kg
Finland 361.0
Kg
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