Punjab has recorded the highest per capita milk availability of 937 grams per day, followed by Haryana's 679 grams, according to a report by Assocham.

"In terms of per capita availability of milk in 2010-11, Punjab was the leader among the 20 major states with 937 grams of milk available per person per day, followed by Haryana (679 grams), Rajasthan (538 grams) , Himachal Pradesh (446 grams) and Gujarat (435 grams)," the report said.

"With about eight per cent share in India's total milk production of about 121 million tonnes (MT), Punjab is ranked fourth with annual milk production of 9.4 MT," said the report titled 'Unlocking Growth of Potential of Indian Dairy Industry.'

"Besides, with dairy output worth over Rs 3,600 crore, Punjab ranked seventh with about 6% share in the country's total dairy output worth over Rs 60,255 crore," the report said.

Punjab is ranked sixth in terms of direct employment being generated in registered dairy units and the state has a share of about four per cent in 1,493 registered dairy factories across India, it said.

However, Punjab has registered the slowest growth in milk production during 2006-07 to 2010-11 at around three per cent, which is below all-India average growth of about 19%.

Andhra Pradesh (AP) has recorded highest growth in terms of both milk production and per capita availability, thereby clocking a growth of over 41% and about 36% during the five year period starting 2006-10.

However, the state ranked third in terms of milk production with over 1.1 MT of milk produced annually.

Apart from AP, Rajasthan (28%), Kerala (24.8%), Karnataka (24%) and Gujarat (23.7%) are among the top five states in terms of clocking high growth in milk production.

"Milk production across India has grown at a significant rate of about 19% during the aforesaid period with overall milk production crossing 121 MT mark as of 2010-11.

"But despite being the largest milk producer in the world, per-capita milk availability in India at 252 grams falls below the global average of 279 grams per person per day," DS Rawat, national secretary general, Assocham, said in a release.

"It is imperative for India's dairy industry to streamline its value chain processes and integrate smallholder dairy producers into processing value chain in order to improve overall performance of the industry, more so as they possess inherent strengths like low production costs, lower liabilities and limited liquidity risk," said Rawat.

"However, lack of knowledge and technical know-how, poor access to support services, limited access to credit and poor milk quality together limit the ability of smallholder dairy producers to take advantage of market opportunities," he said.

New Zealand (9,773 grams), Ireland (3,260 grams) and Denmark (2,411 grams) are top three countries in terms of per-capita milk availability.

"Growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of over four%, milk production in India is expected to rise to about 177 MT by 2019-2020 and that would help in meeting the projected demand of 150 MT by 2016-17 that has been envisaged in National Dairy Plan Phase-1," said Rawat.

Uttar Pradesh (UP) commands highest share of over 17% in total milk production, followed by Rajasthan (11%), Andhra Pradesh (9%), Punjab (8%) and Gujarat (8%). These top five states have a combined share of over 53% in country's total milk production.