The German Agricultural Society (DLG) has signed a joint venture agreement with Indian trade fair organiser Radeecal Communications to co-organise the “Dairy Livestock & Poultry Expo-AgroFarm” at Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India from 6-8 September 2019
The agreement was signed during DLG’s EuroTier trade fair for the animal production sector, which took place last week in Hanover, Germany.
Dairy Livestock & Poultry Expo-AgroFarm will include exhibitors engaged in producing technical farm equipment, solutions for packaging and processing and services for dairy and poultry production. The trade fair aims to support local farmers and cooperatives from the regions of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and many other Indian states.
Sharing the belief that India’s farmers will benefit from a high-quality international livestock exhibition, DLG is joining forces with Radeecal to provide a common platform for the animal farming industry in India. This fits with the concept of DLG trade shows, which aims to transfer relevant agricultural knowledge to the farming sector through the gathering of companies, governmental bodies and media, as well as their network of customers and suppliers.
“The farming sector in India has seen developments in the past few years that require more technologies and interconnected knowledge to enable sustainable production of agricultural products,” said Lars Huf, deputy managing director of DLG International GmbH.
New developments in India include the Indian government’s development scheme for the dairy sector. It has been implemented by the National Dairy Development Board, which provides technical and implementation support to the project. Total milk production in India was about 165mn tonnes in the financial year 2016/17, which represented nearly 20 per cent growth since 2013/14.
“The Dairy Livestock & Poultry-AgroFarm trade fair will be the place to see and discuss new developments that are on the verge of being introduced to India,” added Dr Huf. “To enhance the knowledge transfer opportunities, international experts will share information on state-of-the-art production systems that can be applied to India in special DLG seminars.”
Sanyal Desai, managing director of Radeecal Communications, said, “There is considerable future growth potential in this segment in India, and an exhibition that offers a complete overview of relevant technical solutions will help our farmers make significant progress.”
Currently, Dairy Livestock & Poultry Expo is an international exhibition and conference that features the latest technology and equipment for animal husbandry, dairy farming, milk processing and packaging and veterinary products, co-located with the agricultural machinery show Agri Asia. The events attract 200-plus exhibitors and more than 125,000 visitors annually.
India is one of the largest producers of milk in the world, accounting for almost 20 per cent of world production. The country is also home to the world’s largest livestock population of about 512mn head. This includes 119mn dairy cows, 80.06mn goats and 44.56mn sheep. Livestock farming contributes about 25 per cent of the country’s farm GDP.
India’s milk co-operatives and private dairies currently only have access to about 20 per cent of the milk produced in the country. Approximately 34 per cent of milk is sold in unorganised markets and another 46 per cent is consumed locally. This contrasts with most developed nations, where almost 90 per cent of surplus milk passes through the organised sector.
It has been projected that the dairy products market in India will grow by at about 15 per cent annually between 2010 and 2020 and that the sector’s output will be US$22.5bn by the end of that period.
