NEW DELHI: India’s milk production increased by nearly 4% to around 239 million tonnes in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23 whereas meat production rose by nearly 5% to reach over 10 million tonnes during the same period, shows the basic animal husbandry statistics released on National Milk Day on Tuesday.
Year-on-year data, based on an integrated sample survey (ISS), shows the total egg production was nearly 143 billion in numbers during 2023-24, an increase of over 3% compared to the previous year. Wool production was estimated at 34 million kg which is almost at par with the output in 2022-23.
India is currently the largest milk producer in the worldcontributing 24% of global milk production. The estimates show that UP was the highest milk producing state in the country during 2023-24 followed by Rajasthan, MP, Gujarat and Maharashtra. These five states together account for nearly 54% of the total milk production in India.
Breed/species-wise, indigenous buffalo contributed the highest percentage (31.5%) followed by crossbred cows (31.1%), nondescript buffalo (over 13%), indigenous cows (11%), nondescript cows (10%) and goats (over 3%).
Releasing the statistics, animal husbandry and dairying minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, said even the per capita milk availability has increased from 459 gm per day in 2022-23 to 471 gm per day in 2023-24, registering an annual increase of 2.6%.
Speaking about the need to further boost output, Singh asked dairy farmers to adopt sex-sorted semen and artificial insemination in a big way, and said the govt on its part was focusing on breed improvement of livestock. He added that as the country marches towards becoming the third largest economy in the world, the contribution of the dairy sector in it would be huge.
Unlike the livestock census, conducted every five years, the ISS is done annually in three different seasons (summer, rainy and winter), covering 15% (96,000 villages) of the total villages in the country, for estimation of the production of milk, meat, egg and wool. It is also done in two urban wards of each district as well during the period.
The primary objective of such a survey is to provide reliable livestock indicators for policy making and research. At present, the 21st Livestock Census operation is being conducted, covering 30 crore households. It’ll be completed by Feb next year.
The survey result shows that West Bengal was the largest meat producer during 2023-24 followed by UP, Maharashtra, Telangana and AP. Nearly 50% of the meat output comes from poultry followed by 18% from buffalo, over 15% from goat, 11% from ship, nearly 4% from pig and over 2% from cattle.
In terms of eggs, AP is the largest producer followed by Tamil Nadu, Telangana, West Bengal and Karnataka. India is the second largest producer of eggs in the world.
As far as wool output is concerned, the major contribution comes from Rajasthan (nearly 48%) followed by J&K (23%), Gujarat (6%), Maharashtra (5%) and HP (4%). In terms of annual growth rate, the Punjab witnessed the highest 22% AGR followed by Tamil Nadu (17%) and Gujarat (3%).
