Resilient Dairy Alliance Launched to Enhance India's Dairy Sustainability

The Confederation of Indian Industry – Food and Agriculture Centre of Excellence (CII-FACE) and the Environmental Defense Fund have collaboratively launched the Resilient Dairy Alliance (RDA) to foster a more resilient and sustainable dairy ecosystem in India. The initiative aims to incorporate climate resilience into everyday farming practices, identifying barriers and scalable solutions across the dairy value chain.

The RDA focuses on enhancing feed and nutrition optimization, manure management, and climate-resilient farm practices. The organization plans to engage with policymakers, industry stakeholders, and various actors across the dairy value chain, including cooperatives and private dairy companies like Amul, Gyan Dairy, and others.

India's dairy sector significantly supports rural livelihoods, involving millions of smallholder farmers who own two to five animals. The sector contributes nearly a quarter of global milk production but faces challenges such as productivity constraints, feed availability, and climate-related stresses. Addressing these issues through climate-resilient practices is seen as an opportunity to improve farmer incomes and sector sustainability.

According to Kavery Ganguly, Principal Lead at CII-FACE, the alliance aims to support scalable, farmer-centric approaches that enhance productivity and income stability. Vrashabh Kapate from the Environmental Defense Fund highlighted that improving feed efficiency and nutrient management not only boosts productivity but also lowers emission intensity.

The RDA will promote proven solutions through collaboration, shared learning, and policy engagement, with the goal of a future-ready dairy sector that advances sustainability and climate goals.