Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh, discusses various government initiatives aimed at expanding infrastructure, improving veterinary healthcare, promoting digital livestock management, and supporting dairy farmers in India.
In a Lok Sabha address, Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh revealed that the Government is not proposing a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for milk. Instead, dairy cooperatives and private dairies determine prices based on market conditions. The Government continues to support dairy farmers through various initiatives aimed at increasing milk procurement, expanding processing capacity, strengthening village-level dairy cooperative societies, improving milk quality testing facilities, and creating modern dairy infrastructure across the country.
In response to a question about the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF), Singh stated that the scheme is promoting investment in dairy processing, meat processing, animal feed plants, and value-addition infrastructure. Awareness programmes, stakeholder meetings, training sessions, and outreach activities are conducted regularly through State Governments, Common Service Centres, and industry associations to ensure wider participation.
The Minister also discussed the National Digital Livestock Mission (NDLM), which ensures secure digital animal identification through a unique 12-digit Tag ID for every registered animal. The portal uses government-grade protection, including AES-256 encryption and Transport Layer Security (TLS), to record vaccination, breeding, treatment, and other veterinary services throughout an animal's life. Mobile Veterinary Units are not yet integrated with the portal, and no banking API integration requests have been received so far.
Finally, Singh addressed dairy development initiatives, which include flagship programmes to enhance milk production, improve farmers’ incomes, and generate rural employment. Schemes such as the National Livestock Mission (NLM), Livestock Health and Disease Control Programme (LHDCP), and Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) are supporting entrepreneurship, breed improvement, disease control, veterinary infrastructure, and affordable veterinary medicines. For instance, 113 AHIDF projects worth ₹4,700.13 crore have been approved in Maharashtra.
Source:
Press Information Bureau
