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Copenhagen to help India with buffalo milk

University may team up with colleagues in Varanasi to improve shelf life of milk and get animals to deliver more

Buffalo milk from India could become a new area of expertise for Copenhagen scientists. This is according to the Hindustani Times, who point to a possible collaboration between the university and Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi.

Professor Richard Ipsen, a dairy scientist from the Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen, hinted at a possible collaboration with BH while in India on Wednesday, the newspaper writes.

Read an interview with Richard Ipsen here.

Banaras Hindu University is in Varanasi on the Ganges river.

Buffalo cheese and milk powder

In a presentation at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences (BHU), Ipsen said that the up-scaling and improvement of shelf-life of Indian dairy products and the exploring of potential for Indian buffalo milk, were the key areas in which a tie-up with the BHU was possible.

»Let me return to my university and I’ll try and prepare a groundwork for the possible tie-up with BHU in these key areas, to render enormous export potential to buffalo milk from India,« Ipsen maintained.

Ipsen said that he would speak to the government funding agencies in both nations and if needed, the dairy industry in Denmark.

»India holds a unique advantage from making dairy products from buffalo milk, which is not present in Europe. Both Denmark and India need to jointly explore buffalo milk scientifically to render export potential to it, particularly via manufacturing buffalo milk based cheese and milk powder,« he said.

Indians in Europe

»We have a growing non-resident Indian population in Europe that have a craving for quality dairy products from India, provided they have a proper shelf life, for which Indo-Danish collaboration is needed,« he added.

India is the largest milk producer globally, but ranks below 20 when it comes to exporting dairy products. Denmark is seventh in the world.

Cows should yield more

According to the Hindustani Times, annual milk yield per cow in Denmark is reported to be 9,000 plus litre, while it’s Indian variant is way behind at 1400 litre.

»A potential area of Indo-Danish collaboration could be how to reap benefits of breeding revolution in Denmark to render enhancement of milk yield among Indian cows,« he said.

miy@adm.ku.dk

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