India produces a whopping 25% of all global milk production. The country also has the largest population of bovines in the world— 303.76 million, including cattle, buffalo, mithun and yaks. That is especially significant when global warming is taken into account, since bovines produce enteric methane, a greenhouse gas, as a byproduct of their digestion process.
One way to address production of enteric methane is to look for new ways to formulate bovine diets to reduce it. In the United States and other western countries, research into cattle diet formulations is ongoing. But as the statistics for India show, tackling dairy methane emissions must have a global focus.
“India is one of the most important stakeholders if we want to address the issues of the dairy industry globally,” said Dr. Ashish Kumar, Cornell Atkinson postdoctoral associate. “If production efficiency of animals is low, more methane emissions are produced. This seems to be the case in India.”
“India is one of the most important stakeholders if we want to address the issues of the dairy industry globally.”
Kumar and Dr. Shambhvi, Cornell Environmental Defense Fund postdoctoral fellow, are helping India deal with its enteric methane problem. The two researchers are part of Cornell’s Accelerating Livestock Innovations for Sustainability (ALIS) project. Working with BAIF Development Research Foundation, a nongovernmental agricultural development agency based in the Indian state of Maharashtra, Kumar and Shambhvi are collecting local feed ingredients for analysis. Private industry, such as Hindustan Feeds, and government agencies, such as Maharashtra Livestock Development Board, are also potential partners in the project.
