Problems in dairy farming

Dairying is a centuries-old tradition for millions of rural households; domesticated animals have been an integral part of the farming system from time immemorial. It provides supplementary income to some 70 million farmers in over 500,000 remote villages the farmers earn an average 27.3 percent of their income from dairying, with as high as 53 percent for landless and as low as 19 percent for large farmers. Annual milk production in India have more than tripled in the last three decades, rising from 21 million tones in 1968 to 80 million metric tones in 2001. Despite this impressive growth in milk production in the last three decades, productivity of dairy animals remains very low. Currently more than 80 percent of the milk produced in the country is marketed by unorganized sector is likely to dissuade small dairy farmers from expanding production, which is absolutely necessary to keep up with the strong demand growth.