Comprehensive study of the dairy sector in Assam, India
This study of Assam’s dairy producers, consumers and milk agents aims to generate information that will lead to the following:
- preparation of a pro-poor dairy development plan
- training, certification and monitoring of milk agents
- dissemination of milk preservation technology for value-added products
- fostering of new market opportunities through business development information and facilitation centres
- generic campaigns of milk consumption and quality awareness.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
- To understand the smallholder dairy production and distribution systems to develop a pro-poor dairy development plan.
- To identify farm-level constraints to increased milk production and productivity, and potential interventions that will address these constraints.
- To study the socio-economic circumstances of dairy smallholders in order to understand poverty and equity implications.
- To recommend ways of increasing the productivity of farm inputs and decreasing costs of production.
- To prepare a location-specific action plan to overcome the constraints and use the opportunities of dairy farming.
- To identify the constraints to milk marketing in difficult areas like river islands and hilly terrains and come up with specific recommendations to overcome these constraints.
- To identify technical, policy and institutional changes required for making dairy development an effective mechanism for poverty reduction.
- To improve knowledge on consumer preferences and trends in milk consumption, and the impact of these factors on opportunities for marketing of milk and dairy products.
- To establish potential, current and projected consumer demands for milk and dairy products in urban, peri-urban and rural areas.
- To analyze the reasons behind the relatively low demand for milk and recommend specific action plans for increasing this demand.
- To study the quality of milk and dairy products sold by various agents and its impact on consumer preference and milk consumption behaviour.
- To understand the marketing and processing chains that link small-scale landless dairy producers to consumers of milk and dairy products.
- To give specific recommendation for provision of quality milk to consumers and remunerative prices to milk producers through the traditional milk distribution system.
- To identify constraints to increased investment in the Assam dairy sector and recommend interventions aimed at enhancing entrepreneurship.
- To better understand the reasons behind the failure of dairy and chilling plants in Assam and how they can best be operated.
- To develop a basic database on the dairy sector of Assam.
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