India’s NPDD and AHIDF Schemes Expand Dairy Infrastructure
India’s Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying has restated its focus on upgrading dairy infrastructure through schemes administered by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying. The programmes support state efforts involving milk procurement, processing facilities and supply-chain infrastructure, with the government saying they are intended to bring more primary producers into organised markets and support farmgate returns.
The National Programme for Dairy Development provides central grants for village-level procurement, chilling and milk-quality systems. The standard grant covers 50% of eligible infrastructure costs. The contribution rises to 70% in hilly areas and 75% in the North Eastern Region, according to the programme’s guidelines.
By the middle of 2026, NPDD-backed activity had organised 36,611 new dairy cooperative societies and strengthened 34,557 existing ones. The programme had also added 168 lakh litres per day of chilling capacity and supplied more than 76,000 devices for testing milk quality.
The Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund uses a different mechanism to support investment by private and cooperative enterprises. It provides a 3% interest subvention on commercial loans for projects involving cold-chain logistics, processing centres and value-added dairy production. Projects approved under AHIDF have created a combined milk-processing and value-addition capacity of 418 lakh litres per day across India.
Official production data show that India’s milk output increased from 209.96m metric tonnes in 2020-21 to an estimated 247.87m metric tonnes in 2024-25. Over the same five-year period, daily per-capita milk availability rose from 427 grams to 485 grams.
The ministry has highlighted improvements in collection points, quality checks at reception and processing capacity as components of the infrastructure programme. It has also identified pasteurised liquid milk and value-added dairy products as areas in which demand is increasing, alongside the need for cold-chain facilities. The figures and programme information were published by the Press Information Bureau.
