Dairy sector facing "resource crunch"

He said that the all-India covereage was not more than 5% of the total cattle population and many of the district co-operative societies had become sick or defuct because of their not being economically viable. The state department of animal husbandary and dairying and the state dairy federations were facing similar resource constraints and were not in a position to consolidate the achievements he said.

Badal bemoaned the lack of interest shown by the private sector in making investtments in diary development activites. He said that unfortunately many policies including those of forest department had not been favourable to the livestock owners and the time was now ripe for consideration to be given to the commercilaization of dairy farming.

Some of the important recommendations made at the conference were as follows:1. For global competitiveness, the present trend of industry from being `production oriented’ needs to be changed to a `Market/consumer oriented’ approach.

2. With this changing scenario, the consumer will like to look at every product form an angle of "Value for money". It will, therefore, be necessary to develop new technological processes and product portfolios accordingly.

3. The dairy industry should blend/adapt/modify the available process technologies with the new ones, like Membrane Technology, microwave heating, hurdle technolgy, high pressure technologhy, etc.

4. Because of increased consumer interest in low calorie, dairy industry should modify conventional energy rich dairy products by developing formulated and fabricated products with non-dairy ingredients, if necessary.