World Dairy Summit 2022

Prime Minister officially inaugurated the International Dairy Federation World Dairy Summit (IDF WDS) 2022, being held at the India Expo Centre and Mart in Greater Noida.

• Theme of the IDF WDS is ‘Dairy for Nutrition and Livelihood’.
• Last time India hosted the International Dairy Congress in 1974.
• The dairy summit is a congregation of global and Indian dairy industry leaders, experts, farmers, and policy planners.

International Dairy Federation

• IDF is the leading source of scientific and technical expertise for all stakeholders of the dairy chain.
• Since 1903, IDF's network of dairy experts has provided a mechanism for the dairy sector to reach global consensus on how to help feed the world with safe and sustainable dairy products.
• A recognised international authority in the development of science-based standards for the dairy sector, IDF has an important role to play in ensuring the right policies, standards, practices and regulations are in place to ensure the world’s dairy products are safe and sustainable.
• With over 1,200 highly qualified dairy experts in 43 member countries around the world, IDF represents 75% of global milk production and provides a permanent source of authoritative scientific and technical information relevant to the dairy sector.

Indian Dairy Sector:

• India is self-sufficient in milk and the world’s top milk producer as well as consumer.
  • India accounts for 23 per cent of the global output.
• India’s dairy sector is unique in many aspects. It has a unique smallholder milk production system, wherein more than 70 percent of dairy farmers own either 1 or 2 animals.
• There are about 8 crore dairy farmers in India mostly small and marginal (having at an average 2 bovines).
  • The annual domestic production of milk in the country is estimated at 220 million tonne.
• It provides a stable cash flow as compared to crop cultivation. There is a large network of dairy institutions, providing market access to the dairy farmers.
• India is home to about 19 percent of in-milk cattle and 63 percent of in-milk buffaloes in the world.
• It has a very rich reservoir of genetic diversity and possesses some of the best breeds of cattle and buffaloes in the world.
• 50 well-defined breeds of cattle and 19 of buffaloes are well adapted to the local environment.
• Milk and milk products are important constituents of Indian food basket.