ARCHIVED MEDIA RELEASE
PA/17/2002 18 September 2002
Australia helps raise Indian milk production, looks forward to greater cooperation with India on agriculture
A joint research project involving scientists from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Indian National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has the potential to raise India's milk yield by millions of litres a day.
Australia's contribution to the three-year project, supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), culminates today with the opening of a feed supplement plant at Itola, near Vadodara in Gujarat, by Australia's High Commissioner to India, Ms Penny Wensley AO.
Constructed under the guidance of CSIRO and NDDB scientists, the By-Pass Protein Plant processes the protein meal produced as a by-product from oil extraction of sunflower, rapeseed and other oilseed crops. The resulting supplement provides cattle with a protein source that adds value to the nutritional quality of the diet.
According to CSIRO scientist Dr Suresh Gulati, the research team found that milk yields rose substantially when cows were fed a kilogram of this supplement each day. He said that the increased milk production and disposable income could have important economic and social implications for India's 11 million village dairy farmers.
High Commissioner Wensley described the project as a model of cooperation between Australia and India.
"This plant is the impressive product of several years of collaborative work by a number of Australian and Indian scientists on the development and application of a new and exciting technology that will benefit the dairy producers and consumers of both India and Australia," she said.
"The promise it holds for the future is a symbol of our wider bilateral relations - expanding in new ways to deliver growth and greater prosperity to both our countries."
The NDDB's Senior Scientist, Dr Manget Ram Garg, said that the milk yield had gone up about one litre per cow/buffalo per day, providing producers with additional income of around Rs 9 a day, per animal.
Over the next six months, NDDB will conduct feeding trials using the by-pass supplements produced at the Itola plant to determine whether installing similar plants in some of its national network of 45 feed mills would be commercially viable.
For further information, contact Vicki Poole, ACIAR Country Manager or Kuhu Chatterjee ACIAR Asst. Country Manager, tel. 6888 223, extension 469 & 125 respectively.