Indian Dairy Sector: Need for scaling solutions from isolated pilots to sector-wide practices

New Delhi, 24 September 2026: India's dairy sector is the backbone of rural livelihoods, nutrition security and women's employment across the country, and India's global leadership in milk production is a significant national achievement. As the sector faces increasing climate and productivity challenges, there is a growing need to move proven solutions beyond isolated pilots and enable their adoption across the wider dairy ecosystem.

This was highlighted at the National Consultation of the Resilient Dairy Alliance (RDA), where the Confederation of Indian Industry - Food and Agriculture Centre of Excellence (CII-FACE) and the Environmental Defence Fund (EDF) launched two publications aimed at supporting the transition towards a more productive, sustainable and climate-resilient Indian dairy sector:

White Paper: "Scaling Climate-Resilient and Productive Dairy Systems in India: Barriers to Adoption, Pathways for Scale, and Opportunities for Strengthening the Ecosystem"

Playbook: "Securing the Future: Embedding Resilience in the Indian Dairy Sector"

The White Paper brings together evidence and stakeholder perspectives on the key barriers preventing wider adoption of climate-resilient and productivity-enhancing practices across the dairy sector. It examines gaps in access to finance, knowledge and advisory services, quality inputs and technologies, institutional support and last-mile delivery, while identifying opportunities to create stronger enabling ecosystems for scale.

The White Paper draws on the first phase of the Resilient Dairy Alliance, including multi-state consultations and stakeholder engagement across Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. It highlights the need to move from individual pilots and fragmented interventions towards coordinated, ecosystem-level approaches that can enable solutions to reach a much larger number of dairy farmers and value-chain actors.

Complementing the White Paper, the Playbook, "Securing the Future: Embedding Resilience in the Indian Dairy Sector," provides a practical framework for translating climate resilience and environmental sustainability into action within the dairy sector.

The Playbook is designed to support dairy businesses and other value-chain stakeholders in identifying climate and environmental risks, integrating resilience considerations into business strategies and operations, and identifying practical actions that can be implemented across the dairy value chain. It focuses on moving from broad recognition of climate risks to actionable approaches that can be integrated into decision-making, investments and day-to-day operations.

The consultation brought together representatives from government, industry, financial institutions, research institutions, cooperatives and other stakeholders to discuss the findings and explore pathways for translating them into action.

Welcoming participants to the consultation, Dr. Rathnam, Co-Lead, Resilient Dairy Alliance, highlighted the importance of bringing together stakeholders across the dairy ecosystem to build a shared understanding of climate risks and identify practical pathways for strengthening resilience and productivity.

[Quote: Climate resilience must be embedded across the dairy value chain, bringing together industry, farmers, government, finance and research to scale practical solutions that strengthen productivity, livelihoods and long-term sustainability. - Dr. Rathnam, Co-Lead, Resilient Dairy Alliance & CEO, Milky Mist]

Providing the context for the consultation and the RDA's next phase, Mr. Hisham Mundol, Chief Advisor - India, Environmental Defense Fund, reflected on the learnings from the Alliance's first phase and the need to move from identifying solutions to enabling their wider adoption and scale across the dairy sector.

[Quote: India's dairy sector has the knowledge, experience and proven solutions needed to build greater resilience. The opportunity now is to connect these solutions, strengthen collaboration and scale their impact. - Mr. Hisham Mundol, Chief Advisor - India, Environmental Defense Fund]

Addressing the participants, in his special address, Dr V Sridhar, Executive Director (Institution Building)

National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), emphasized on the ongoing work of the NDDB and their vision of Dairy 2.0.

[Quote: Just as we have a power grid to move electricity from regions of surplus to regions of demand, we should explore the idea of a 'silage grid'-producing and storing fodder in surplus regions and using emerging freight corridors to move it to dairy-producing regions facing feed shortages- Dr V Sridhar, Executive Director (Institution Building) National Dairy Development Board (NDDB)]

Delivering the Keynote Address, Dr. Ashok Gulati, highlighted the broader implications of climate resilience for India's dairy sector and the importance of strengthening productivity, farmer livelihoods and sustainability as the sector responds to emerging challenges.

[Quote: India's dairy sector must prepare for a brighter future by focusing on indigenous breeds, better animal nutrition, climate-resilient infrastructure and innovative solutions such as solar-powered cooling and seaweed-based feed to improve productivity and reduce emissions. - Dr. Ashok Gulati, Distinguished Professor, ICRIER ]

The consultation reinforced that climate resilience needs to be integrated into the broader agenda of dairy productivity and development. Priority areas include strengthening feed and fodder systems, improving animal health and husbandry, enhancing resource-use efficiency, promoting climate-smart farm practices, and enabling greater access to finance, technology, knowledge and advisory services.

As the RDA moves into its next phase, the White Paper and Playbook will provide complementary foundations for continued engagement and action. The White Paper will support dialogue around ecosystem-level barriers, enabling conditions and pathways for scale, while the Playbook will provide stakeholders with a practical reference for embedding resilience into dairy-sector strategies and business practices.

Concluding the consultation, Mr. Sachin Sharma, Co-Lead, Resilient Dairy Alliance, delivered the Vote of

Thanks and acknowledged the contributions of participating stakeholders and partners to the RDA's work and the development of the two publications.

[Quote: The next step for the Resilient Dairy Alliance is to move from identifying solutions to creating the enabling conditions for their adoption and scale-learning from one another and supporting practical, economically viable solutions that are relevant to Indian dairy systems - Mr. Sachin Sharma, Co-Lead, Resilient Dairy Alliance & EVP & Business Head- Agri & Dairy Operation, ITC Limited]

The launch of the two publications marks the next step in the RDA's effort to translate evidence, stakeholder insights and emerging solutions into greater collaboration, practical action and pathways for scale, supporting a productive, climate-resilient and future-ready dairy ecosystem in India.