Home minister Amit Shah backs sustainable, circular dairy economy

NEW DELHI: Union home and cooperation minister Amit Shah Tuesday pitched for making the dairy sector more sustainable and environment friendly, and stressed on the need to ensure benefits of carbon credits to farmers.

He was addressing a meeting on 'Sustainability and Circularity in the Cooperative Dairy Sector' where it was decided to set up three new multi-state cooperative societies for the dairy sector to focus on animal feed production, disease control and artificial insemination; developing cow dung management models; and circular use of dead cattle remains.

Shah said as India moves towards White Revolution 2.0, goal should not only be to expand dairy cooperatives and make them efficient but also to create an ecosystem of dairy that is sustainable and promotes a circular economy.

He emphasised on adopting scientific models that can help farmers earn carbon credits by reducing emissions in dairy sector through sustainable practices. If such a model is developed, dairy farmers can earn carbon credits and trade it with other entities under carbon credit market mechanism in India.

Shah said if farmers' income is to be increased, country must create network of integrated cooperatives where most work is done via mutual cooperation & collaboration.