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(Burning Issue) India's Dairy Sector - Significance, Challenges and Way Forward
(Burning Issue) India's Dairy Sector - Significance, Challenges and Way Forward
(Burning Issue) India's Dairy Sector - Significance, Challenges and Way Forward
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Context
India is witnessing the spread of the Lumpy Skin Disease infection which has
killed nearly 75,000 cattle in India and spread to more than 10 States and
UTs.
The scale of deaths and spatial spread of the viral infection is important for
the nation as India has the largest number of cattle in the world and is also
the largest milk producer.
At the same time, India also hosted the World Dairy Summit 2022 after a gap
of 48 years. In both these contexts, this edition of the burning issue will deal
with the Indian Dairy Sector, its contribution to the nation, its challenges and
the way forward.
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4/6/24, 6:55 PM [Burning Issue] India’s Dairy Sector: Significance, Challenges and Way Forward
Acts as a buffer: Milk animals act as a buffer for farmers during droughts
and flood conditions. Also, milk animals are more evenly distributed among
farmers than on agricultural land.
Not a seasonal occupation: Dairying is not a seasonal occupation like
farming as milk and milk products can be produced throughout the year
thus leading to the year generation of income.
Highly nutritious: Milk is considered a ‘Whole meal’. Dairy products are
highly nutritious with high amounts of proteins and calcium, thus helping
tackle malnutrition in India. For this reason, several state governments are
trying to add Milk to their school’s Mid-day meal scheme.
Huge Employment Generation: the dairy sector employs around 80 million
people from milk-producing farmers in rural areas to milk distributors in
urban areas.
Promotes women empowerment: most of the milking work in rural areas is
done by women. They also work as collectors and suppliers of milk to village
milk collection centres. This, helps rural women earn some income and
automatically promotes women empowerment.
Boosting other sectors: the dairy sector promotes the growth of multiple
other sectors like fodder industries, organic manure manufacturing, and food
processing industries like Curd, cheese, paneer manufacturing.
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Ensuring more prices to farmers: as they are the actual producers of the
milk. For this, rather than giving more weightage to fat percentage in milk as
a determinant of milk price, more quantity and quality to taken as
parameters.
Price support: to farmers to improve animal fodders, ensure vaccination and
afford veterinary services on time. This ensures animal health and
productivity and thus farmers’ prosperity.
More cooperatives: Forming new cooperatives of farmers to more
formalization of the dairy sector and thus better milk quality and quantity in
the market. It will also generate more data that can be used in further
planning in the dairy sector and hence better resource mobilization.
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4/6/24, 6:55 PM [Burning Issue] India’s Dairy Sector: Significance, Challenges and Way Forward
Anand Milk Union Limited or AMUL has created its name and reputation
over the years delivering quality milk products to the entire country and now
the world.
Amul’s story started in 1946 with inspiration from Sardar Patel, when farmers
established a cooperative named ‘Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers
Union Limited’ (KDCMPUL) in a village called Anand.
Amul has a three-tiered structure. First, every milk producer in the village is a
member of the Village Dairy Cooperative Society. These members elect their
representatives. These representatives together manage District Milk Unions,
which form the second tier.
These district milk unions take care of milk and milk products and their
processing. They sell these products to the State Milk Federation which
forms the third tier. State Milk Federation then acts as the distributor that
sells or facilitates the selling of the products in the market. The revenue gets
shared downwards in a similar fashion.
The dairy is in control of the villagers themselves. Farmer organizations come
together under one umbrella of Amul and directly sell products to
consumers through the state milk federation.
This elimination of intermediaries could ensure a good quality product at a
competitive price. This provided a stable income for marginal farmers in lean
seasons as well because there are no intermediaries to take the chunk.
This model has become a case study in business schools. It showed the
success of cooperatives. It showed how the benefits trickle down from the
market to the producer at the bottom of the pyramid. Recently, Union
Cooperative minister Amit Shah commented that the Amul model can go
beyond the milk and dairy sector and produce great results in other sectors
also.
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Conclusion
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Launch
The dairy sector in India has performed well in the past but still faces several
challenges.
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