Amul vs Nandini debate: A look at the journey of India's dairy sector

India is currently the world's largest producer of milk, accounting for around 23 per cent of the milk that is produced in the world. But there's a raging Amul vs Nandini debate on in Karnataka right before the state's Assembly elections.

India's milk production was quite different in the early years after independence. By 1970, the average Indian was only consuming 107 grams of milk per day, which was well below the recommended nutritional level, according to a report published by the Press Information Bureau

However, six years before this, in 1964, a visit to Gujarat's Anand district by former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri had already given rise to the formation of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in 1965. The government of India had passed a mandate to build dairy cooperatives modeled on the 'Anand Pattern'.

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Under this pattern, there were village-level dairy cooperatives that promoted unions at the district level and a marketing federation at the state level.

The 'Anand Pattern' of cooperative structure was implemented under the NDDB's 'Operation Flood'. The project was overseen by the first NDDB chairman, Dr verghese Kurien, who later came to be known as India's 'Father of White Revolution".

Operation Flood took 26 years to be completely implemented:

1. Phase I (1970-'81): The sale of skimmed milk powder along with butter oil donated by the European Economic Community (now known as the European Union).

2. Phase II (1981-'85): India's milk shed numbers jumped from 18 to 136. Milk outlets also increased to 290. By the time 1985 ended, the country boasted of 43,000 village cooperatives and 42,50,000 milk producers.

3. Phase III (1985-'96): The NDDB had by then helped cooperatives strengthen their production, marketing, and infrastructure. By this time, the country's milk cooperatives had shot up to 73,000.

Operation Flood revolutionised India's milk prouction. The cooperative structure helped farmers manage their businesses on their own without depending on middlemen.

Soon enough, India did not only stop importing milk solids from other nations, but also started exporting dairy products. Cross-breeding also led to genetic improvement of milk-producing animals.

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While India's milk production was 21.2 MT (million tonnes) in 1968-69, the same has increased nearly ten-fold to 210 MT in 2020-21.

While the world's milk production growth rate is currently at two per cent, the same in India has crossed the six-per-cent mark.

Milk consumption in the country has also risen in a similar manner. In 2020-21 it was 427 grams.

The dairy sector has now become a huge part of the Indian economy, employing around 80 million rural households. The majority of milk producers who work in the country's dairy sector are women.

The Indian government celebrates Dr Kurien's birthday, November 26, as National Milk Day, on which it awards National Gopal Ratna Awards to encourage dairy production.

Currently, government initiatives like National Dairy Plan, Jan Dhan Yojana, and the Start-up India initiative have further boosted growth in this sector