The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Revised National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD), aimed at modernizing India’s dairy sector and ensuring its long-term growth. The scheme, classified as a Central Sector initiative, has been allocated an additional ₹1,000 crore, taking the total budget outlay to ₹2,790 crore for the duration of the 15th Finance Commission period from 2021-22 to 2025-26.
The revised programme is focused on strengthening the dairy infrastructure across the country. It seeks to boost milk procurement and processing capacity, improve quality control systems, and ensure better market access for dairy farmers. The initiative is designed to encourage value addition in the sector, streamline supply chain efficiency, and ultimately raise rural incomes, particularly benefiting women, who represent 70% of India’s dairy workforce.
The revised NPDD is structured around two key components. The first focuses on developing essential dairy infrastructure, including the establishment of milk chilling plants, advanced milk testing laboratories, and certification systems. It also prioritizes the formation of new village-level dairy cooperative societies and aims to bolster milk procurement and processing capacities, particularly in the North Eastern Region, hilly areas, Union Territories, and other remote regions. This component also includes financial support for the formation of two new Milk Producer Companies (MPCs).
The second component, known as “Dairying through Cooperatives (DTC),” continues efforts to sustainably develop dairy cooperatives. This component is being implemented in partnership with the Government of Japan and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) under existing agreements. It targets improving dairy production, processing, and marketing infrastructure in nine states: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
Since its inception, the NPDD has had a considerable socio-economic impact. The scheme has benefited over 18.74 lakh farmers and generated more than 30,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities. It has increased milk procurement capacity by an additional 100.95 lakh litres per day.
The programme has also led to the strengthening of over 51,777 village-level milk testing laboratories and the installation of 5,123 bulk milk coolers with a combined capacity of 123.33 lakh litres. Additionally, 169 laboratories have been equipped with Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) milk analysers, and 232 dairy plants have adopted advanced adulteration detection systems.
Under the revised NPDD, the government aims to establish 10,000 new Dairy Cooperative Societies and form two new Milk Producer Companies. The initiative is projected to generate an additional 3.2 lakh employment opportunities and further promote the use of advanced technology and quality testing infrastructure in the dairy sector.
