How Global Innovations Can Shape India’s Dairy Tech Future
The Indian dairy industry stands at the cusp of transformation. Contributing 23% of global milk production, India is the world’s largest milk producer. Yet, its dairy sector remains largely traditional and fragmented, with inconsistent data collection and limited technological integration. As India steps into the era of dairy digitization, the absence of standardized data collection and management poses a significant challenge to large-scale digital adoption.
A recent study, "Standardization for Data Generation and Collection in the Dairy Industry: Addressing Challenges and Charting a Path Forward" (MDPI, 2025), highlights the critical need for uniform data protocols. The study underscores how structured data collection can help streamline decision-making, enhance farm productivity, and integrate modern technologies like AI, IoT, and cloud-based dairy management systems. While developed dairy economies have made significant progress in data standardization, India is only beginning this journey. The question now is—can India learn from global pioneers and accelerate its transition?
Why Data Standardization is Critical for India’s Dairy Sector
Dairy farming today is as much about data as it is about milk production. The ability to track herd health, optimize feeding schedules, monitor milk yield, and predict diseases can be the key to improving efficiency and profitability. However, without standardized data collection and interpretation, dairy digitization efforts will remain fragmented.
The lack of uniform measurement units, terminology, and data collection methods results in disorganized datasets, making seamless integration across systems difficult. A standardized approach will ensure compatibility between different dairy tech solutions, enabling farmers and processors to make informed decisions based on reliable data. Furthermore, AI-driven models require structured, high-quality data to predict milk yield, disease outbreaks, and feeding patterns. AI cannot deliver accurate insights without standardised data, limiting its usefulness for farmers.
For small dairy farmers, the adoption of standardized digital records can significantly improve market access, financing opportunities, and traceability. Organized data makes it easier for farmers to qualify for loans, insurance, and inclusion in premium supply chains. Beyond individual farms, processors, retailers, and exporters also rely on consistent data for quality control, regulatory compliance, and pricing transparency. Inconsistent data across farms leads to inefficiencies, impacting profitability and operational efficiency at every level of the supply chain.
Key Challenges Hindering Dairy Data Standardization in India
India's dairy landscape is incredibly diverse, with farms ranging from small, family-run operations that rely on manual record-keeping to large-scale dairy farms equipped with advanced automation and monitoring tools. This variation makes implementing a one-size-fits-all data standardization approach nearly impossible. Standardization must be flexible enough to accommodate different farm sizes, regional variations, and levels of technological adoption.
A significant barrier to standardization is low data literacy among farmers. Many dairy farmers in India are not formally trained in data management, leading to errors, missing entries, and inconsistent data reporting. This lack of structured training reduces the effectiveness of digital tools and analytics, creating unreliable datasets. Additionally, outdated software and non-compatible technologies further complicate the issue. Many dairy farms still rely on standalone, legacy systems that do not support data integration, making it difficult to synchronize records across different platforms.
Resistance from the industry is another challenge. Many dairy tech companies operate in silos, developing proprietary data systems that restrict integration with other solutions. A farmer who invests in one company’s milking sensors may find it nearly impossible to integrate this data with another company’s herd management software. This lack of interoperability discourages farmers from adopting multiple digital solutions, limiting their ability to benefit from data-driven decision-making.
Unlike the European Union or Brazil, India lacks a formal regulatory body or government mandate to drive dairy data standardization. Without clear policies or financial incentives, dairy cooperatives and private players have little motivation to adopt common data standards. For standardization to succeed, government intervention, industry collaboration, and farmer incentives are essential.
Lessons from Global Dairy Data Standardization Success Stories
While India is still in the early stages of dairy digitization, several countries have successfully implemented dairy data standardization programs, offering valuable lessons.
Brazil’s GERAR and Labor Rural initiatives are excellent examples of structured data collection in livestock farming. GERAR standardized reproductive performance data, enabling farmers to improve breeding outcomes and profitability. Meanwhile, Labor Rural created an integrated farm data platform, helping farmers track herd performance, production efficiency, and financial metrics.
In Europe, the International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR) established universal standards for milk quality, herd health, and data interoperability. This ensures that dairy data collected across different European countries is consistent, enabling advanced AI-driven benchmarking and predictive analytics.
The USA’s Dairy Brain Project, led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, took a different approach by developing middleware solutions to connect various dairy management software and hardware. This project allows farmers to integrate data from different sources into a single dashboard, making AI-based farm analytics more accessible and effective.
How India Can Fast-Track Dairy Data Standardization
To accelerate data standardization, India must adopt a multi-pronged approach. First, the Government of India, NDDB, Amul, Mother Dairy, and private dairy processors must work together to create a national dairy data framework. Standardized data formats should align with global frameworks like ICAR, ensuring that India’s dairy data is compatible with international markets.
Second, digital literacy programs for farmers must be launched to bridge the knowledge gap. Mobile-based regional-language training programs can educate dairy farmers on how to use digital tools, enter data accurately, and adopt AI-powered decision-making tools. Providing subsidies and financial incentives can encourage small farmers to adopt standardized digital dairy records.
The Indian dairy industry must also encourage open-source data-sharing platforms, preventing tech companies from locking farmers into proprietary ecosystems. Incentivizing private dairy tech companies to adopt universal data protocols will ensure that different technologies can work together, making digital dairy solutions more accessible and scalable.
Finally, India must leverage AI and cloud-based dairy management systems. Encouraging startups like Stellapps, Dvara E-Dairy, and Prompt Dairy Tech to align their solutions with global data standards will enable better data analytics and forecasting for farmers. Standardized digital records will also simplify dairy financing, insurance approvals, and supply chain management, making the sector more efficient.
The Road Ahead: India’s Dairy Industry Must Act Now
The future of India’s dairy industry is digital, but without standardized data collection and integration, digitization may create more confusion than efficiency. As India embarks on this transformation, learning from global best practices, aligning industry stakeholders, and implementing regulatory frameworks will be critical in shaping a technology-driven, AI-powered dairy sector.
Now is the time for India’s dairy industry to embrace standardization and unlock its full potential. By doing so, India can create a more efficient, profitable, and sustainable dairy ecosystem—one that benefits farmers, processors, and consumers alike.
