Amul, NDDB Drive Decarbonisation Efforts Amid Challenges in India’s Fragmented Livestock Sector

Amul is taking all necessary measures to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the livestock sector—addressing transportation emissions, using biomass for steam generation, adopting a bio-CNG model, introducing probiotics for cattle and utilising solar energy, said Jayen Mehta, managing director, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (Amul) in a conference Unlocking the Carbon Market Potential in the Livestock Sector in India co-hosted by Global Dairy Platform (GDP) and Carbon Markets Association of India (CMAI) on May 7 in New Delhi. 

While the leading player in the livestock sector is addressing GHG emissions, the issues remain. Mehta added, “Given the fragmented nature of the sector, issues remain. These include challenges related to education, measurement, reporting, verification, financing, scalability and lack of institutional support needed to decarbonise the sector.” 

The size of the livestock industry in India is about $200mn with one-fourth of the world’s milk coming from the 80mn farmer families in India. The sector contributes approximately 14.5% of global anthropogenic GHG emissions, primarily through methane from fermentation, manure management, feed production and energy use across the value chain.

In a two-day event, Maneesh C Shah, chairman of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) said, “Feeding and breeding models vary significantly across countries, so naturally, carbon emissions do too. In India, small-scale breeding practices differ greatly from those in developed nations necessitating the need of methodologies tailored specifically for small-scale Indian farmers.” 

Shah added that there is a need to explore innovative financing mechanisms to lower the upfront cost of sustainable technologies and establish a transparent carbon trading platform—where both buyers and sellers can easily access information. 

To reduce methane emissions, NDDB launched Ration Balancing Program to educate the farmers on balanced feeding of their dairy animals in 2015. Shah said, “Since our animal feeding systems are largely unorganized, we conducted nutritional profiling of all these feed ingredients—covering fat, protein, energy, and more—and made this data accessible through a digital portal.” According to few studies, this approach can reduce methane emissions by nearly 15%, Shah said. 

For dung management, NDDB distributed small-scale biogas plants to farmers. This allowed methane—which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere—to be captured and used for household cooking. The resulting slurry was then used as organic fertilizer. 

Without financial or practical advantages, concepts like mitigation and climate change won't see widespread adoption. Shah said, “We've developed several financing models. For example, we supported 1,000 biomass plants. We have applied for carbon credits and passed on all the payments to the farmers.”  

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy launched the National Bioenergy Programme in November 2022 to utilise biomass to generate energy while addressing waste management and reducing pollution caused by agricultural residue, cattle dung and industrial waste.