Why White Revolution’s ‘boon’ has suddenly become a ‘curse’ for milk farmers in India

Rajiv Kumar: Financial Express: June 28, 2018

One of the highlights of the While Revolution was a technological innovation in 1956 that helped Amul manufacture powder from buffalo milk. The innovation helped in converting surplus milk into powder and store it for use during summer, when production is usually low. This also enabled farmers to sell all their milk to the dairy cooperative in Gujarat, even in the winter when production usually peaks.

In pre-White Revolution days, farmers often faced trouble in selling milk during the “flush” winter season. However, the dairy cooperatives’ ability to convert milk into powder helped in turning dairy farming into a sustainable income-generating activity in the following decades. In between, India’s milk production capacity took a gigantic leap. According to data of Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, total milk production in India in the 1960s was around 17-22 million tonnes. This increased to 163.7 million tonnes in 2016-17.

Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said early this month that at present, milk production rate is at 6.3 per cent. “Annual increase in milk production is 6.3 per cent during 2014-18 period while annual increase in milk production during the period 2010-14 was 4 per cent,” PTI quoted Singh as saying at a World Milk Day event in Delhi. The minister further said that between 2014-18, milk production in the country increased 23.69 per cent and the actual rate is expected to rise to 9 per cent by 2022.

A number of factors has led to this increase in milk production, including improved dairy husbandry practices by farmers, increasing replacement of buffaloes with cows by farmers, as well as some government initiatives for the dairy sector. However, despite an increase in production, milk farmers are suffering because of a sharp decline in prices at which they sell milk to dairies. The reason is both peculiar and ironical – rising stock of skimmed milk powders (SMP) at dairies.

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