Dairy and Nutrition: Ensuring Food Security for India’s Future

Dairy and Nutrition: Ensuring Food Security for India’s Future

A.Niveditha^1*

¹ M.V.Sc scholar, Department of Animal Nutrition,

 Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Veterinary Education and Research,

Kurumbapet, Puducherry, India.

^*Corresponding Author Email ID: nivedithaarul2000@gmail.com

NAME OF THE AWARDS: DR. V. KURIEN AWARD OF EXCELLENCE-2025

Abstract:

India is the world’s largest milk producer and independent in food production, but it still continues to face hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition, especially in children under age 5. The dairy sector plays a major role in the global economy as well as in the economy of rural farmers, and it holds great potential in addressing these challenges. Milk is a nutritious and easily affordable source of essential nutrients like high-quality protein, calcium, and vitamins that support health across all age groups, from newborns to the elderly. The growing demand for A2 milk due to its better digestibility, along with recognition of whey protein from dairy byproducts, highlights the sector’s potential to enhance both nutritional impact and economic returns. Government programs like Mid-Day Meals and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) include milk to improve the protein and calcium intake among children and the elderly. However, challenges like high cost in the distribution system, milk quality issues and poor infrastructure remain. By addressing these challenges and embracing the integrated innovations like in breeding, nutrition, disease detection, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) tools, the Indian dairy sector can be enhanced. Thus, strengthening the dairy sector with innovations and government policies is crucial for ensuring food security and achieving the nutritional goals, economic development, and environmental sustainability in India.

Keywords: A2 milk, Dairy, Food security, Malnutrition, Sustainable dairy

Introduction

In India, our dietary patterns are changing due to the growing human population and increasing urbanization, thereby putting immense pressure on the food system to meet our nutritional needs.  World hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition are still on the rise and almost 2.8 billion people are unable to afford a healthy diet worldwide, according to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.  India is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.46 billion. It has made tremendous progress in economic growth and achieved self-sufficient grain production.  Despite this, it continues to hold a huge burden on food and nutrition security. As per the reports of the National Health Survey (NHFS) 2019 – 2021, 35.5% of children under five are stunted, and 19.3% are wasted. 5.5% of children under five are stunted, and 19.3% are wasted. Among various agricultural sectors, dairy plays a significant role in improving children’s nutrition. (Headey, 2023).

Dairy products are a rich source of macronutrients and micronutrients that include fat, carbohydrate (lactose), protein with high biological value, minerals that are essential for skeletal growth, like calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and several trace elements and vitamins. Being such a nutritious food, milk is available to people at an affordable cost, marking its significance to meet the dietary needs of millions of people.

Indian Dairy Sector

The dairy industry in India has seen significant growth, with the highest cattle population in the world -192.49 million and the largest milk producer with 239.30 million tonnes, contributing 25% of global milk production. The per capita availability of milk is 471 g/person/day during the year 2023-24. Therefore, it can be said that the Indian Dairy Industry is among the largest and fastest-growing markets in the world.

With a contribution of 4 to 5% to the overall national GDP and 24% in total agricultural GDP, Dairy could be regarded as one of the significant contributions to the national economy. The dairy sector provides direct and indirect employment to people, starting from milk production, transportation, processing, and marketing. In rural areas, women are actively involved in looking after the calves, feeding them with good food, and extracting milk. Dairy empowers women economically and socially through the support of dairy cooperatives and Self-Help Groups. With increasing commercialization and advancement in animal husbandry practices has led to better breed selection, improved feeding techniques, and enhanced veterinary care. Moreover, the cooperative movement in the dairy sector, led by organizations such as Amul, has played a significant role in supporting farmers and ensuring fair pricing for their milk. These cooperatives provide necessary infrastructure, training, and marketing support to the farmers, thereby boosting milk production.

Dairy’s Role in Combating Malnutrition

Hunger refers to the physical sensation of not having enough food, often linked to food insecurity. While malnutrition refers to undernourishment, including stunting, wasting, overweight, as well as micronutrient deficiencies. Malnutrition can result from prolonged periods of hunger and insufficient nutrient intake. India ranks 105th out of 127 countries in the 2024 Global Hunger Index, with a score of 27.3, categorized as “serious.” GHI is based on four component indicators, such as undernourished population, stunting, wasting, and death under 5 years of age. The Indian government has taken several initiatives to reduce malnutrition and has implemented several schemes like the Mid-Day Meals Scheme (PM-POSHAN), Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), and National Health Mission (NHM). These schemes are important to meet the nutritional target endorsed by the World Health Assembly and also to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Milk has been included in Mid-Day Meals (Sreenath et al., 2023) and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDC) to improve the nutrition of food among children.

Milk and dairy products are a good source of high-quality protein, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin D, B12, and riboflavin. In milk, Casein and whey protein are high-quality proteins in milk, comprised of essential amino acids that act as building blocks for growth and cognitive development. (Semba, 2016). Casein (alpha and beta) is an important milk protein, representing 80% of the total protein in cow milk. Beta casein, encoded by the CSN2 gene, is the second most important, with twelve genetic variants (A1, A2, A3, B, C, D, E, F, G, H1, H2, and I) that have been reported. Among these, A1 and A2 are the most common types encountered, which differ with a single amino acid at position 67 in the chain. A1 has histidine, which is prevalent among the exotic cattle breeds the while A2 has proline that predominates in Indian Zebu cattle (Fernández-Rico et al., 2022). Meanwhile, the milk of Crossbred cattle possesses both A1 and A2 caseins. The one-amino-acid alteration in A1 milk can result in the production of the opioid peptide fraction beta-casomorphin-7 (BCM-7), which has been linked to health problems in some human beings, like type-1 diabetes, heart disease, infant death, autism, and digestive problems (Kaskous et al., 2020). Whereas A2 milk has the same nutrient profile as that of regular milk (mostly crossbred cattle), but it offers better digestion, and this makes it a suitable source of high-quality nutrition (Kaplan et al., 2022). Though most of the theories on A1 and A2 milk are circulating the results are yet to be proved by researchers. .On the other hand the by products from milk are gaining importance among consumers. One such is the whey protein from milk.

Whey protein constitutes the remaining 20% of total protein in milk which include α Lactalbumin, β Lactoglobulin, Immunoglobulins, and proteose peptone. Whey is often a waste byproduct of cheese and paneer production. Their importance is being recognised for their nutritional value as they contain all nine essential amino acids in an appropriate proportion for human consumption (Tang et al., 2025). α Lactalbumin is rich in tryptophan, which is a serotonin precursor, and helps in brain development in children (Markus et al., 2002). While β-lactoglobulins are rich in branched chain amino acids (isoleucine, leucine, and valine)  are important for building muscle protein and prevents muscle wasting (Davoodi et al., 2016). And these whey proteins are rich in sulfur containing amino acids (cysteine, methionine) which are precursors of glutathione, that has antioxidant properties (Onwulata et al., 2008). Likewise, immunoglobulins and proteose peptone have found to possess antimicrobial activity (Tang et al., 2025). Converting this “waste” into high-value whey protein products can reduce the food waste and improve economic returns for dairy farmers, making it a cost-effective and sustainable protein source.

Additionally, milk also consists of essential nutrients like calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium which are regarded as the crucial elements for good bone health, skeletal calcium retention during growth. Similarly, zinc, vitamin A and B12 helps in maintaining the immune function (Rizzoli, 2022).

With the presence of all these valuable constituents in milk, we can say it is one of the key factor in combating the malnutrition in India. Also to promote the nutritional benefits of milk, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying is organizing social media campaigns through the official channels.

Challenges in the Dairy Sector

The dairy sector, despite being a significant contributor to nutrition and rural livelihood, it also has certain challenges. One of the primary challenges faced by dairy farmers is the availability of quality feed and fodder for their livestock (Gamit et al., 2021). With increasing urbanization, there is decrease in the cultivable lands. Higher feeding cost decreases the profit of the dairy industry (Moran 2005). Along with good quality feed, proper genetic selection are very essential for good milk production (Cole et al., 2023). Apart from this, milk quality concerns of- unhygienic handling practices in farm environment, contaminated feed and water, shortage of quality feed and fodder, unhealthy animal significantly contribute to the high microbial load in milk. All these factors leads to rejection of Indian dairy in an international market. In addition, production of high quality processed milk and milk products requires strict storage and transport conditions. Any lack of cold chain infrastructure and, quality testing facilities can impede dairy processing and distribution (Banerjee et al., 2024). We can overcome these challenges by improving infrastructure and storage facilities to high standards that can helps to strengthen farm hygiene. Providing training programs to farmers on scientific practices, improving the breed quality and ensuring fair market access are also important. By improving these challenges, we not only improve the dairy sector but also can enhance the national food security.

Innovation and Intervention for Sustainable Dairy Growth

Innovation and smart intervention are the two key factors that we need to embrace to make dairy sector in India, a truly sustainable and capable of supporting the country’s food security goals. The undertaken initiatives has aimed to address the major aspects of dairy sustainability include genetics, nutrition and health. Under genetics, artificial insemination, sex sorted semen, embryo transfer artificial insemination, sex sorted semen, embryo transfer help in faster genetic gain and targeted breeding. In terms of nutrition, total mixed ration, urea ammoniated straw, bypass protein and fat, azolla cultivation, and hydroponic fodder are being followed to improve feed efficiency. Health care advancement, like early disease detection using behavioural sensors and diagnostics tools like PCR, ELISA, helps in making preventive measures rather than reactive treatment. The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the dairy sector- tools like RFID tagging, herd management software, automated feeding systems, and milk meters are helping farmers in improving the efficiency and reducing the resource wastage. The INAPH app, developed by NDDB and Infosys, supports digital recording of animal health and productivity, encouraging data-driven farm management (Girish Kumar, et al., 2022). Similarly, e-Gopala is also a farmer welfare app that empowers the farmers with timely advice on animal health, feeding, and breeding. Government initiatives such as the Rashtriya Gokul Mission and the National Dairy Plan are playing a crucial in role in conserving the indigenous bovine breeds, improving the milk production and making dairy farming more profitable to farmers.

Environmentally, the sector is improving its practice to help dairy farmer become more eco – friendly. Such practices include solar-powered milk chillers, biogas plant and better waste management practices. In alignment with this, the Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying organized a workshop on Sustainability in the Dairy Sector and Circularity in March 2025. The workshop has made a significant milestone with the signing Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with 26 milk unions across 15 states by The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to establish biogas plants, aiming to convert cow dung into biofuel and organic fertilizers. Therefore, the dairy sector needs such an integrated innovation for the sustainable growth in India.

Conclusion

Dairy, besides being a livelihood for millions, is also a powerful tool to combat malnutrition with its high-quality and affordable nutrition. Thus, India’s goal of becoming nutritionally secure cannot be completed without recognizing the significant role of dairy. So, to make full use of its potential, the sector must embrace innovation to the fullest – from breeding technologies to eco-friendly waste management. By combining science and government policies, India not only becomes nutritionally rich but also supports economic growth, environmental sustainability, and rural empowerment.

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