NDDB to integrate 8,000 Rajasthan villages into dairy cooperatives

INDIA – The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has announced plans to add nearly 8,000 villages in Rajasthan to the state’s organised dairy cooperatives, strengthening farmer participation and milk procurement systems.

Speaking at the Rangeelo 2026 dairy and livestock festival in Jobner, NDDB Chairman Meenesh Shah said the initiative aims to improve milk quality, transparency, and farmer incomes.

In addition to new village inclusion, NDDB will upgrade infrastructure in around 4,000 existing cooperative villages by installing milk testing and procurement facilities.

As a result, more milk is expected to flow into the organised sector, which currently handles only 35–40% of India’s marketable surplus.

This shift is critical, as it ensures better price realisation for farmers and safer dairy products for consumers.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan, the country’s second-largest milk producer, stands to gain under the White Revolution 2.0 programme. The expansion aligns with the state’s dairy growth strategy and rural employment goals.

However, NDDB also highlighted sustainability challenges linked to India’s large livestock population. To address methane emissions, the board is promoting biogas generation and scientific manure management.

Farmers are being encouraged to adopt small biogas units to generate clean energy and additional income.

Overall, the initiative signals a renewed push towards cooperative-led, sustainable dairy growth, reinforcing NDDB’s long-term vision for rural prosperity and food security.

National Dairy Development Board unveils digital backbone for world’s largest milk economy

The new development comes after the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), under the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, announced plans to construct a robust digital backbone for the world’s largest milk economy.

India produces more milk than any other country on the planet, roughly 25% of global output, but scale alone has never guaranteed efficiency. What is now reshaping the country’s dairy sector is not herd size or cooperative reach, but data.

According to a recent report by the Government of India and the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), the transformation is being driven by a comprehensive suite of digital tools designed to link animals, farmers, cooperatives, and markets into a single, traceable ecosystem.

At the core of the transformation is the National Digital Livestock Mission (NDLM), implemented by NDDB in collaboration with the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD).

The programme underpins a unified national livestock database known as Bharat Pashudhan, designed to bring data-driven management to a sector historically reliant on fragmented records and manual reporting.

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