NEW DELHI: India is the top producer of milk in the world and has set a target of producing 300 million metric tons (MMT) of milk in the next five years from the present 239 MMT, Union Minister of Animal Husbandry and Dairying Rajiv Ranjan Singh said in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Singh also said that ever since the Modi government has launched the Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM) in 2014, the milk production in the country has increased by 63.5 per cent and the government is hopeful of further increasing it by 15 per cent in next three years.

"India is now the top milk producing country in the world. We have now set a target of producing 300 MMT of milk in next five years from the present 239 MMT," he said.

The minister said about 10 crore people in the country are engaged in milk production of which 75 per cent are women. He said the per person consumption of milk in India is 471 gram.

The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying is implementing Rashtriya Gokul Mission. It mains objective is development and conservation of indigenous breeds, genetic upgradation of bovine population and enhancement of milk production and productivity of bovines thereby making milk production more remunerative to the farmers.

The scheme, launched in 2014, is continued under revised realigned schemes of the Department from 2021-2022 to 2025-2026.

Its objectives are to enhance productivity of bovines and increasing milk production in a sustainable manner using advance technologies and to propagate use of high genetic merit bulls for breeding purposes.

It also aims to enhance artificial insemination coverage through strengthening breeding network and delivery of artificial insemination services at farmers' doorstep.

and promote indigenous cattle and buffalo rearing.