India aims for FMD-free status in nine States within two years, eyes Europe’s dairy market

India is targeting foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) free status in at least nine states over the next two years, a step the government hopes will finally open the door to Europe’s dairy market that has remained largely out of reach for the world’s biggest milk producer.

Speaking at the 98th foundation day of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on Thursday, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh said sustained indigenous vaccination has already sharply reduced FMD outbreaks from 105 in 2021 to just 40 last year.

Nine states with consistently low outbreak numbers and completed vaccination cycles have now been identified as the first candidates for FMD-free certification, he said.

“Despite leading the world in milk production, we have struggled to export dairy products, largely because developed countries, especially in Europe, require FMD-free certification,” Singh said. “The Prime Minister has set a goal of making India FMD-free by 2030.”

Once certified by the World Organisation for Animal Health, the nine states would effectively give India its first real foothold to begin dairy exports to markets that have long insisted on disease-free status as a precondition for trade, he said.

The disease control was achieved through a wider vaccination and traceability drive, he said, adding that the government has issued 13-digit digital identity tags to 38 crore animals and, this year, rolled out an OTP-based verification system — farmers now get a one-time password on their phones to confirm a vaccination actually took place, after several states flagged instances of vaccinations being logged without being administered.

Singh said ICAR and the Department of Animal Husbandry have jointly developed indigenous vaccines that are helping control not just FMD but also Classical Swine Fever (CSF) and Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR).

A domestically developed African swine fever vaccine was also launched at Thursday’s event.

“It’s a major breakthrough for a disease that has long been a serious problem,” Singh said, adding that the country’s 18 animal research centres, several universities and 84 veterinary colleges gave India “enormous scope” to widen technical training in animal health.

On recovery of fish exports from the US tariff shock, the minister said a 58 per cent US tariff imposed in 2025 initially affected exporters reliant on America, India’s largest seafood market, but shipments still rose to Rs 73,891 crore in 2025-26, up from Rs 62,408 crore the year before — a jump Singh attributed to free trade agreements Prime Minister Narendra Modi has signed with over 100 countries.

Still, the minister flagged a gap that policy has yet to close: inland fisheries, where production has surged 147 per cent since 2014, account for barely 2 per cent of the country’s fish exports. He called for dedicated policy support — including drone-based transport — to move inland produce out for export.

Singh also pushed ICAR to look inward at underused resources, directing officials to draw up a strategy for developing Odisha’s brackish water potential in partnership with the state government.

Odisha, he noted, holds the country’s largest stretch of brackish water, ‘a prime territory for shrimp farming, one of India’s most lucrative seafood exports’ that remains largely untapped.

On funding, Singh said ICAR has received `123 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana for research on disease control, aquaculture and breed improvement, and directed the agency to put its Krishi Vigyan Kendra network to work carrying that research directly to farmers.