White Revolution 2.0

The package programme adopted to increase milk production is called the White Revolution in India.
In India, it is also known as Operation Flood.
This revolution in India occurred in 1970 when the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was established to organise dairy development through cooperative societies.
The Operation Flood contributed to India becoming the world’s largest milk producer by 1998.
Ajarpura was the first Amul Dairy Cooperative Society (DCS) to be registered on August 7, 1947. It played a crucial role in seeding the White Revolution.

White Revolution 2.0

The idea of White Revolution 2.0 focuses on four key areas:

Empowering women farmers
Enhancing local milk production
Strengthening dairy infrastructure and
Boosting dairy exports

Objective:

Increase milk procurement of dairy cooperatives by 50% (from the present 660 lakh litres per day to 1,000 lakh litres) over the next five years by providing market access to dairy farmers in uncovered areas and increasing the share of dairy cooperatives in the organised sector.

Funding:

National Programme for Dairy Development (NDDB) 2.0, a new central sector scheme under the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying will assist 1,000 Multipurpose Primary Agricultural Credit Cooperative Societies (MPACSs) at the rate of Rs 40,000 per MPACS.

Milk Scenario in India

India is the largest milk-producing country in the world, with production reaching 230.58 million tonnes during 2022-23. In 1951-52, the country produced just 17 million tonnes of milk.
India’s milk production surged by approximately 1,256% from 17 million tonnes in 1951-52 to 230.58 million tonnes in 2022-23, reflecting the success of agricultural reforms, rural development, and the dairy sector’s critical role in the country’s economy.

Low average yield: Only 8.55 kg per day for exotic/crossbred animals and 3.44 kg/ animal/ day for indigenous/ nondescript animals.
Regional disparities: Yield in Punjab is 13.49 kg/ animal/day, but only 6.30 kg/animal/day in West Bengal.
Per capita availability of milk: 459 grams/ day (higher than the global average of 323 g/ day).
Top 5 milk-producing states: Uttar Pradesh (15.7%)>Rajasthan (14.4%)>Madhya Pradesh (8.7%)>Gujarat (7.5%)>Andhra Pradesh (6.7%). Together, they contribute 53% of country’s total milk production.

Per capita availability of milk: 459 grams/ day (higher than the global average of 323 g/ day).

Top 5 milk-producing states: Uttar Pradesh (15.7%)>Rajasthan (14.4%)>Madhya Pradesh (8.7%)>Gujarat (7.5%)>Andhra Pradesh (6.7%). Together, they contribute 53% of country’s total milk production.

Decline in the annual growth rate of production from 6.47% (2018-19) to 3.83% (2022-23)

Dominance of unorganised sector: About 63% of total milk production goes to the market, and about two-thirds of the marketable milk is in the unorganised sector. In the organised sector, cooperatives account for the major share.

Employment by the Dairy Industry: Directly or indirectly provides livelihoods to more than 8.5 crore people, mostly women.

Dairy Cooperatives: Dairy cooperatives operate in around 70% of the country’s districts. About 1.7 lakh dairy cooperative societies cover around 2 lakh villages (30% of total number of villages) and 22% of producer households.

In Gujarat, Kerala, Sikkim, and Puducherry, more than 70% of villages are covered by dairy cooperatives.

Dairy cooperatives procured 660 lakh kg of milk per day in 2023-24; the government wants to increase this to 1,007 lakh kg/ day by 2028-29.

Ways to Reduce the Production Cost of Milk

The Primary objective of White Revolution 2.0 should be centered on reducing the production costs of milk at the farm-gate.
The latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) for 2022-23 highlights that milk has become the primary food expenditure for both rural and urban areas in India.
Rural the monthly averaged spending on milk is at Rs 314.
Urban the monthly averaged spending on milk is at Rs 466.
Significance: It is greater than any other expense incurred on vegetables, cereals, eggs, fish & meat, fruits, edible oil, spices, and pulses.

Concern

The increased spending on milk is mainly due to 2 factors.
Firstly, due to inflation. For example, the all-India modal price of milk has surged from Rs 42 to Rs 60 per litre in the last five years.
Secondly, rising costs of fodder, feed, and raw materials necessitate dairies to increase procurement prices paid to farmers.
Consumer affordability has its limits.

How the cost of milk can be reduced?

1. Increase milk production using new breeding technologies & genetic improvements.

New breeding technique
Sex-sorted (SS) semen technology

Using this technique, there’s over a 90% chance of producing only female calves.
Whereas natural or artificial insemination (AI) typically results in only 50% female calves.
Having 90% female calves means more cows, and more milk.

Genetic improvements

Naturally, 5-7 calves are produced by a cow during its entire lifetime through normal breeding.
Using genetic technologies, there can be a significant increase in high genetic merit cows.

For example: Embryo transfer (ET) technology: 12 calves can be produced from every donor cow per year.

Embryo transfer (ET) technology
In-vitro fertilisation

Steps taken

In March 2020, Amul launched a Bovine Breeding Centre in Mogar, Gujarat. to breed a core group of Highly Genetically Meritorious (HGM) bulls and cows.

Breeds	Average milk production per year
Holstein Friesian	10,000-12,000 litres
Jersey	7,000-10,000 litres
HF-Gir & HF-Sahiwal crossbreed	5,000-7,000 litres
Indigenous Gir, Sahiwal and Murrah buffalo	3,000-4,000 litres

2. Bring down feeding costs of animals

This should be done by farmers cultivating high-yielding protein-rich green fodder grasses and reducing reliance on expensive compound cattle feed and oil-meal concentrates.

Steps taken

Amul is putting up a 30-tonnes-per-day Total Mixed Ration (TMR) plant at Sarsa in Anand.
TMR will contain dry and green fodder, along with concentrates, vitamins and mineral mixtures, in a ready-to-eat mashed form for animals.
It would save farmers the cost of purchasing and storing fodder separately and administering it in addition to cattle feed.