NDDB CMD Dr Meenesh Shah elected to Board of International Dairy Federation

Anand: Dr Meenesh Shah, Chairman & Managing Director, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has been elected to the Board of International Dairy Federation (IDF) during the General Assembly of IDF held on October 15.

Accepting this responsibility and thanking the IDF delegates for the trust bestowed on him, Dr Shah mentioned that a representative from India, contributing more than 23% of the global milk production, is on the Board of IDF, which will ensure a more inclusive and better global dairying ecosystem. This will also help putting forth the voice of millions of dairy farmers from the smallholder-based dairying system to the global forum and help design suitable policies, frameworks, systems and processes.

He further said that the collective journey with other countries will help bringing out the best for the global dairy sector. While India continues to contribute to the growth of global dairy sector, it will also be able to leverage the expertise of other nations towards advanced scientific measures and technologies to make Indian dairying more efficient, effective and sustainable.

Dr Shah has been associated with IDF since long in different capacities and has been instrumental in sensitising the world about the unique smallholder-based Indian dairying system in different international forums. He is the Member Secretary of the Indian National Committee and also a member of the Standing Committee on Dairy Policy and Economics. He had spearheaded successful organisation of the World’s largest Dairy Conference – IDF WDS 2022 in India in September 2022, which was inaugurated by Shri Narendra Modi ji, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India in presence of Shri Yogi Adityanath, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Shri Amit Shah Ji, Hon’ble Minister of Home Affairs & Cooperation, Govt of India also chaired the concluding session on relevance of cooperative institutions for dairy sector on the opening day. The event saw large scale participation of ministers, policy makers, experts, scientists, farmers from India and abroad.

IDF is the leading source of scientific and technical expertise for all stakeholders of the dairy chain. IDF’s network of dairy experts has provided a mechanism for the dairy sector to reach global consensus on how to help feed the world with safe and sustainable dairy products. IDF members are National Committees, generally constituted by dairy organizations in each country and India is represented by the National Committee (INC) of the IDF.