| | DECEMBER 20218I ndia's population is increasing, giving rise to a bur-geoning middle class. An increase in per capita income is linked to increases in the consumption of protein. Since milk and milk products are the most important sources of protein in India, we can assume that dairy con-sumption will increase significantly. India would go from being an exporter of milk to an importer, given that domes-tic demand may exceed supply. The demand for milk is like-ly to be 270 million tons amount of milk by2030.In order to close the supply gap and increase produc-tion, there will be an increased pressure on limited re-sources such as land which can be either used to grow cere-als, vegetables for human consumption vs. growing fodder for dairy animals. Land under fodder cultivation has not grown, though there has been considerable growth in the animal population in the last few decades.The best solution to tackling sustainability in dairy farming is to increase productivity and overall milk pro-duction without a proportional increase in the number of animals. India has the highest bovine population, but our productivity is not as high as some of our western coun-terparts. The way forward to sustain the growth in milk production is to increase milk per animal so that we have fewer animals to feed. This increase in productivity can be brought about by increasing the genetic potential of existing animals and adding genetic gains to future gener-ations through the use of artificial reproductive technol-ogies such as artificial insemination and embryo transfer technologies. Poor genetics of the herd results in lower milk productivity. Artificial insemination using high merit semen doses which are from progeny tested animals can improve milk production by increasing milk production of the offspring. IVF technologies ensure 100 percent genetic gains in offspring, which also provides a dairy farmer with assured revenues. The quality of these services needs to improve with better training, infrastructure, and stream-lining by making these services available to the farmer at their doorstep.Apart from increasing milk yield from each animal, it is important to also reduce the number of non- productive animals (males) and change the ratio of productive animals SUSTAINABILITY IN DAIRY FARMINGBy Dr. PravinKini, Founder & Managing Director, Tropical Animal GeneticsVANTAGE POINT
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