Prime Minister Modi to inaugurate World Dairy Summit on September 12 at Greater Noida

"The Prime Minister will inaugurate the…summit on September 12. Representatives from about 50 countries are scheduled to attend the event. There will be more than 1,500 delegates during the four-day programme," the minister said.

Besides the Prime Minister, Rupala said home and cooperation minister Amit Shah and other union ministers too will be addressing the summit.

Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat too would be joining the global event being held in India after 48 years. Last time India hosted the International Dairy Congress in 1974.

The dairy summit is a congregation of global and Indian dairy industry leaders, experts, farmers, and policy planners.

"India is number one in milk production and accounts for 23 per cent of the global output. Foreign delegates would be sharing their experience and talk about latest technologies in the dairy sector. We would tell them about our experience," Rupala added.

The minister said the world must know that 80-85 per cent of the income from sale of milk is passed on to dairy farmers by companies.

"Cooperative major Amul alone pays about Rs 150 crore per day to farmers for procurement of milk," the minister said.

National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) Chairman Meenesh Shah said 300 foreign delegates and 1,200 Indian delegates will attend the event. "700-800 farmers, mostly Indians, will also be taking part in the event," he said.

During the summit, there will be several technical sessions and presentation of research papers. The NDDB Chairman said India will showcase its transformational journey through a unique smallholder dairying primarily based on cooperative strategy.

There are about 8 crore dairy farmers in India mostly small and marginal (having at an average 2 bovines). The annual domestic production of milk in the country is estimated at 220 million tonne.

The summit, a carbon-neutral event, will have 24 sessions centred around the theme ’Dairy for Nutrition and Livelihood’ covering different aspects of dairying.

The NDDB said the World Dairy Summit will be a great learning opportunity for dairy farmers, leaders, experts, scientists, professionals, and academics. IDF World Dairy Summit is an annual meeting of the global dairy sector.