India is world's top milk producer for the ninth year in a row
29 Dec 2007
Mumbai: India has retained its position as the world's largest milk producing country, for a ninth year in a row, pushing the United States to second position.
India's milk production also grew almost 4.2 per cent as against the world's average growth of less than 1 per cent.
With total output of milk in the country topping 100 million tonnes, valued at nearly Rs2,00,000 crore, it also remains India's number one commodity, ahead of wheat and rice.
The share of the 'milk group' in the total value of output from agriculture and livestock during 2004-05 was 17.89 per cent, meaning almost every fifth rupee generated from agriculture and allied activities in the country comes from dairying.
In addition to its nutritional value, in India, milk also provides supplementary income to some 70 million farmers in over 500,000 remote villages.
However, the milk processing industry in the country is not still very large. Only 12 per cent of milk is delivered to dairies as against the world average of 70 per cent.
Bulk of the milk produced in India is utilised for drinking or for making sweets or other traditional products in the unorganised sector.
