India is home to 126 million productive cows and buffaloes, making the country the topmost milk producer in the world. Yet, as mentioned in the February 2024 Budget Session, milk productivity or milk production per animal remains low. As per the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, Indian breeds produce an average of 1,550 litres of milk per year, as against 10,000 litres of milk per year produced by those in the United States and Canada. Rearing these exotic breeds in India might not be a solution to address the low milk productivity considering their extreme susceptibility to diseases in our climatic conditions.
However, tackling the emissions from the dairy industry could be a solution to this issue. A study by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada shows that reducing methane emissions from the dairy industry by 20% could increase milk yield by 1 litre per day per cow. This could mean an additional 38,000 million litres of milk per year or an increase in revenue by INR 2.2 lakh crore per year for India.
As emissions are a valuable indicator of the dairy industry’s productivity, measures to reduce the same are crucial for India at this stage. Globally, Denmark is leading the way by bringing methane emissions from the dairy industry into focus and taxing emitters. While this is a rigid mechanism and has garnered criticism, cognisance of these emissions is an important lesson for India.
