Technology can strengthen the Diary sector
- Biotechnology
- Biotechnology is a relatively emerging field in the dairy industry.
- However, it is being touted as one of the most disrupting dairy technology of the future.
- The potential of dairy biotechnology lies in the areas such as increasing disease resistance in livestock, scientific feeding of cows, embryo transmit technology, artificial insemination, development of new molecules and vaccines for prevention and disease management of animals, dairy enzymes/proteins/probiotics, food-grade bio-preservatives, etc.
- Cross-Breeding technology:
- Crossbreeding has taken off in a big way because of the advancements in reproductive technologies like In vitro fertilization (IVF), embryo transfer process, and artificial insemination.
- Out of these processes, IVF and artificial insemination have proven to be the most popular and effective methods.
- Health Tracking Devices for Cattle:
- Health disorders reduce the productivity, longevity and reproductivity of cattle.
- Every year, farmers cough up huge amounts of money on their cattle’s health and wellness. However, thanks to wearable animal gadgets which are akin to human fitness trackers, farmers can track, monitor and manage cattle’s health, nutrition, behaviour, pregnancy, milking frequency, milk production anomaly and activity level in real-time.
- These smart animal trackers can be implanted in the cattle’s ears, tail, legs, neck or any part of the body.
- Last year, Karnataka government had implanted GPS-enabled digital chips in the ears of 56 lakh animals across the state to track their health and early diagnosis of medical condition.
- Robotic milking machines:
- Robotic milking machines are enabling farmers to eliminate the pressure on physical labour, maintain a hygienic milking process, milk the cows anytime of the day instead of following a fixed schedule and improve the milk production.
- The robotic milking machines have arms or cups with sensors that can be attached individually to cows’ teats.
- The sensors can detect whether the cow or which of its teat is ready for milking or not.
- Milk Freshness:
- Milk is a highly perishable product. In spite of treating it with pasteurization, freezing and preservation processes, it has a tendency to go stale.
- Millions of tons of milk turns stale before timely consumption and goes waste.
- Efforts are also being consistently made to increase the shelf life of milk without adding additives or preservatives.
- Technology is now making it possible to detect the freshness of milk and store it for a longer period of time.
- Feed Management
- The feed requirement of cattle depends on their health and weather.
- For example, a sick or pregnant cow may need more nutrition. Hot and humid weather means that cattle need more glucose in their feed.
- There are a number of feed technologies that produce formulated feed additives, supplements, premixes and base mixes to maintain optimal milk production throughout the year.
- For example, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has developed bypass protein technology to produce specially treated protein supplements that can be fed to cattle to increase milk yield and quality.
- Supply Chain Technology
- The Indian dairy industry supply chain is quite complex owing to its dependency on a number of factors such as storage temperature, cold chains availability, weather, perishability/shelf life, first and last-mile distance, packaging, etc.
- The fact that the Indian dairy industry is unorganized and fragmented also adds to the supply chain woes.
- However, a number of technological innovations are taking place in the dairy supply chain in India.
Measures needed
- Increase in the market share depends on how dairy firms’ capabilities and their resources are utilised given the opportunities and threats emanating from emerging markets economies.
- Contract/corporate dairying and emerging global dairy trade are required to rope in dairy supply chains stakeholders in order to expand their outreach and “on-the-go” product positioning into the target segment.
- Digital technology-enabled dairy firms need to identify their compatible partners and competitors for co-creation through product-process innovation via relationship/value-based marketing.
- Freshness in milk, and convenience to store milk or milk products can be a technology innovation brought in by large dairy firms in association start-ups.
- Education and Training at Panchayat level for small and medium size farmers
- Subsidizing cattle production and encouraging cattle markets
- Facility of logistics for produced milk
- Improved Veterinary facility specially in artificial insemination of cattle
- Encouraging private sector firm to procure dairy produced at rural level
- Low interest loans for small and medium scale farmers for cattle purchase
- Encouraging rural women to take up animal husbandry
- Insurance of cattle against diseases like Anthrax, Foot and Mouth, Peste des Ruminantes, etc.
- Nurture dairy entrepreneurs through effective training of youth at the village level coupled with dedicated leadership and professional management of farmers’ institutions.
- Agricultural practices, sanitation, quality of drinking water & fodder, type and quality of pipelines – all of these need to be aligned to the goal of healthy milk
The Government initiatives can ensure sustainable growth of the dairy sector as well as boost incomes of millions of small and marginal dairy farmers. Linking the animal husbandry with food processing industry, agriculture, researches & patents has all the possible potential to make India a nutritional power house of the world. Animal husbandry is the imperative hope, definite desire and urgent panacea for India as well as the world.
