Bovine and Non-Bovine Dairy Sector in India :The Journey From a Milk-Deficit Nation to a Milk-Products Exporter
The evolution of the dairy sector in India and the stellar role played by dairy cooperatives since the launch of Operation Flood form an integral part of the country’s remarkable growth story after Independence. Today, India is the largest producer of milk in the world, contributing 23% of global milk production.
During the 1950s and 1960s, the situation was radically different. India was a milk-deficit nation dependent on imports, and the annual production growth was negative for several years. The annual compound growth rate in milk production during the first decade after independence was 1.64%, which declined to 1.15% during the 1960s. In 1950-51, per capita consumption of milk in the country was only 124 grams per day. By 1970, this figure had dropped to 107 grams per day, one of the lowest in the world and well below the minimum recommended nutritional standards. India’s dairy industry was struggling to survive. The country produced less than 21 million tonnes of milk per annum despite having the largest cattle population in the world.
Following the visit of late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri to the Anand district of Gujarat in 1964, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was created in 1965 with a mandate to support the creation of the ‘Anand Pattern’ of dairy cooperatives across the country through the Operation Flood (OF) programme which was to be implemented in phases.
The ‘Anand Pattern’ was essentially a cooperative structure comprising village-level Dairy Cooperative Societies (DCSs), which promote district-level unions, which in turn promote state-level marketing federation. Starting in 1970, NDDB replicated the Anand Pattern cooperatives through the Operation Flood programme all over India.
Dr. Verghese Kurien, widely renowned as the “Father of White Revolution” in India, was the first chairman of NDDB. Along with his team, Dr. Kurien commenced work on the launch of the project, which envisaged the organisation of Anand-pattern cooperatives in milk sheds across the country from where liquid milk produced and procured by milk cooperatives would be transported to cities.
Operation Flood was implemented in the following phases:
- Phase I (1970–1980)was financed by the sale of skimmed milk powder and butter oil donated by the European Union (then the European Economic Community) through the World Food Programme.
- Phase II (1981–1985)increased the number of milk sheds from 18 to 136; urban markets expanded the outlets for milk to 290. By the end of 1985, a self-sustaining system of 43,000 village cooperatives with 42,50,000 milk producers had been covered.
- Phase III (1985–1996)enabled dairy cooperatives to expand and strengthen the infrastructure required to procure and market increasing volumes of milk. This phase added 30000 new dairy cooperatives, which led to a total of 73,000.
Operation Flood helped quality milk reach consumers across 700 towns and cities through a National Milk Grid. The programme also helped remove the need for middlemen, thereby reducing seasonal price variations. The cooperative structure made the whole exercise of production and distribution of milk and milk products economically viable for farmers to undertake on their own. It also ended India’s dependence on imported milk solids. Not only was the nation equipped to meet its local dairy needs, but it also started exporting milk powder to many foreign countries. Genetic improvement of milking animals also increased due to cross-breeding. As the dairy industry modernised and expanded, around 10 million farmers started earning their income from dairy farming.
Milk production in 1950-51 stood at merely 17 Million Tonnes (MT). In 1968-69, prior to the launch of Operation Flood, milk production was only 21.2 MT which increased to 30.4 MT by 1979-80 and 51.4 MT by 1989-90. Now it has increased to 210 million tonnes in 2020-21. Today, milk production is growing at the rate of two per cent in the whole world, whereas in India, its growth rate is more than six per cent. The per capita availability of milk in India is much higher than the world average. In three decades (the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s), the daily milk consumption in the country rose from a low of 107 grams per person in 1970 to 427 grams per person in 2020-21 as against the world average of 322 grams per day during 2021.
After Operation Flood, the Indian dairy and animal husbandry sector emerged as a primary source of income for a huge number of rural households – most of them either landless, small or marginal farmers. Today, India holds the place of pride of having been the largest milk-producing country in the world for nearly two-and-a-half decades.
The dairy sector assumes a great deal of significance for India on various accounts. As an industry, it employs more than 80 million rural households, with the majority being small and marginal farmers as well as the landless. The cooperative societies have not only made the farmers self-sufficient but have also broken the shackles of gender, caste, religion, and community. Women producers form the major workforce of the dairy sector in the country. The sector is an important job provider, especially for women, and plays a leading role in women’s empowerment.
Every year, since 2001, June 1 is observed as World Milk Day by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations to acknowledge the importance of milk as a global food and to celebrate the dairy sector. In India, the birthday of Dr. Verghese Kurien, on November 26, is observed as National Milk Day.
With a series of measures being taken by the Government as well as the growing role of the private sector in dairy development, India is expected to sustain its growth in milk production and milk processing in the coming decades. Further, to encourage farmers to take up productivity enhancement of indigenous breeds of milch animals in a scientific manner and to motivate Cooperative and Milk producer Companies, the Government of India is conferring the prestigious National Gopal Ratna Awards on the occasion of National Milk Day.
The dairy sector has been a major contributor to the growth of the rural economy in India. The government has facilitated the dairy farming infrastructure through its initiatives such as the development of the National Dairy Plan, a sustainable development-focused framework for the sector, along with general empowerment schemes such as the Jan Dhan Yojana and the Start-up India initiative. In the past eight years, the animal husbandry and dairying sector have received a great deal of impetus under Prime Minister Modi’s vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, and the journey of this sector is indeed a remarkable reflection of self-reliance.
The economic scenario in India is undergoing a sea-change, with Indian economy slated to be among the top three world economies by 2050. The dairy sector that accounts for about 3.5% of the national GDP is an important means of livelihood security in the country. In the past two decades, the role of livestock sector, particularly that of dairy has become vital in maintaining the growth in agriculture sector. In the span of past 65 years, the dairy sector has come a long way registering more than 8-fold increase in milk production, from 17 million tons in 1950-51 to
146.3 million tons at present. In its journey to the top position in the world in terms of milk production, the sector has witnessed several structural changes in production, processing and consumption that have been conditioned by the changing socio-economic environment in the country.
With expanding population, growing urbanization and increasing purchase power, the demand for milk and milk products is expected to go up. We need to catch up with the daunting challenge to produce more milk and convert it efficiently into value added products. Global trend in animal production also indicates a rapid and massive increase in consumption of livestock products. In India, it is expected that milk consumption will grow at 3-4% per annum. To meet the domestic demand of milk and generate sufficient exportable surplus, the growth rate in our milk production needs to be accelerated. By 2050, in order to meet the domestic demand for milk and carve out a visible place for itself in the world dairy markets, India will have to register more than three-fold increase in milk production crossing 400 million tons. To be able to achieve this level of milk production under mounting competition for resources from alternate economic activities, there has to be revolutionary changes in the manner of production, processing and management of dairy sector.
The country is facing the problem of malnourishment in children and mothers on one hand and obesity on other hand. This calls for development of specialized products for feeding school children in order to combat malnutrition as well as special formulations for pregnant women. The rapidly changing scenario at the consumer level promises greatly expanded markets for quality milk and milk products as well as specialty products including health foods. Export markets and domestic demand indicate a large potential for high-quality, safe traditional dairy foods, which calls for large-scale mechanized production of these products. It is envisioned that traditional Indian dairy products will continue to be in focus as there is a potentially vast opportunity for its growth across the country and abroad, more so with the organized sector. The growing demand for safe, nutritious, health promoting convenience milk products will intensify in the future calling for value addition, product diversification and complete quality assurance.
Incorporation of health principles into milk and dairy foods is the ever increasing need of the consumer and the milk processing industry. The relevant approaches relate to the availability of a large number of well-established nutraceuticals/ functional components as well as scope for co- processing of milk and other foods such as fruits, vegetables, cereals and pulses, particularly those which are non-conventional in their utilization pattern. Such integrated milk foods will not only offer considerable product diversification but also provide valuable means of low-cost fortification of milk and dairy products for better micronutrient status and overall health appeal.
Present-day consumers prefer foods with functional benefits such as hypocholesterolemic, anti- carcinogenic, anti-ageing effects and it is possible to pass on these health benefits to the consumers through functional dairy foods. In the area of functional dairy foods, antioxidant- enriched and omega-3 fatty acids-enriched products, low cholesterol dairy products, herbal dairy products, low calorie indigenous dairy foods and minerals and vitamins fortified functional dairy products are a common requirement among specific consumer groups such as infants, children, adults, elderly persons, women etc.
The projected market demand points to generation of bioactive peptides from milk proteins, for the production of functional foods to either enhance their bioavailability from their natural source or create novel foods via the addition and/or fortification of isolated or enriched fractions of bioactive peptides. Application of nanotechnology would lead to the development of novel functional food with special reference to encapsulated bioactive components (polyphenols, minerals, vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, polyphenolic compounds and bioactive peptides). For commercial exploitation of the value added dairy foods, extension of shelf-life assumes greater importance. The burgeoning information on the potential benefits of probiotics and other functional fermented products encourages development of dairy cultures and functional fermented dairy foods using well characterized functional indigenous probiotic strains.
Milk from Non-bovine species
Nowadays, milk from non bovine species is recognized for the therapeutic value and nutritive richness. Milk from some of these animals such as goat, sheep and camel is known to contain innumerable bioactive components including bioactive peptides, growth factors, therapeutic proteins etc. These have been reported to possess vital medicinal properties such as anticancer, anti-diabetic, antiviral etc. Therefore, it is important to investigate the composition of milk of minor species not only for their basic constituents but also for vital health components as well. There is increasing interest among the stakeholders for isolation, characterization, purification, development of scaled up production processes and utilization of these components in novel food formulations. Utilization of the milk produced by these minor species for the development of ‘specialized’ milk products assumes great importance.
Goat milk is one such commodity, which is endowed with numerous health promoting ingredients and thus, has attracted wide attention round the globe. Goat milk has also played an important role in the nutritional security by providing essential amino acids and minerals to the people of developing countries where bovine milk is not readily available. Goat milk has been considered as an ideal substitute for bovine milk, especially for populace suffering from cow milk allergy (CMA). Further, as compared to cow or human milk, goat milk possesses some distinctive biologically active properties, such as high digestibility, high buffering capacity, and series of therapeutic values in medicine and human nutrition. It has been reported that therapeutic and nutritional properties of goat milk come from its lipid part rather than proteins or minerals. Goat milk fat contains significantly greater contents of short and medium chain length fatty acids (C4:0 – C12:0). Goat milk proteins are also more readily digestible, and their amino acids are absorbed more efficiently than that of cow milk. Owing to the lower levels of α-casein in goat milk, it forms a softer curd upon acidification.
In human medicine, the hypoallergenic properties of goat milk are of great importance. By consuming goat milk, significant improvement has been reported in the treatment of children suffering from cow milk allergy. Anecdotal literature has demonstrated the use of goat milk in hypoallergenic infant foods and foods for those who are suffering from various other allergies such as eczema, asthma, stomach ulcer, colitis etc. Due to its better buffering capacity, it is useful in the treatment of ulcers.
The carbohydrates of goat milk closely resemble human milk and are distinctly different from that of cow milk as it has been shown to have 10 times higher oligosaccharides than cow milk. Owing to their ability to possess functional effects such as prebiotic and anti-infective properties, goat milk oligosaccharides have also enhanced nutritive value and importance in infant food. Goat milk has higher level of calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and chlorine, and lower level of sodium and sulphur contents than cow milk. In addition to the inherent nutrients, goat milk also has ability to produce bioactive peptides upon protein hydrolysis. ACE inhibitory and antibacterial peptides have been reported from goat milk casein and whey. Further, there are many reports on the presence of mineral binding, anti-carcinogenic and antithrombotic properties of goat milk. Goat milk also has a significantly higher level of growth factor activity than that of cow milk. Recent reports suggest the use of goat milk in the treatment of dengue fever. This has most probably been attributed to the presence of selenium, which is 27 times higher in goat milk as compared to cow milk and or antimicrobial bioactive peptides. However, this needs to be validated through clinical studies.
Despite all the beneficial virtues of goat milk, its production worldwide is still scanty, primarily because of the poor productivity of animals. In India, efforts are needed to improve the lactation length and yield of goat milk, through multidisciplinary scientific interventions. Further, the benefits of consumption of goat milk need to be validated through clinical studies.
Historically, camel milk and its products were used for many medicinal properties. Nowadays, camel milk production is increasing in Asia and Africa due to its increased nutritive and medicinal response. In addition to the good nutritive value, camel milk is considered to exhibit a wide range of medicinal properties. The composition of camel milk is quite varied depending on the region, where it is being reared. Camel milk has high level of MUFA, which is reported to lower LDL-cholesterol and total cholesterol. Again camel and goat milk have highest level of PUFA. Short chain fatty acids, which are also present in milk fat, are known to improve immune functions, lower heart disease and exhibit antimicrobial activity.
The calcium content in camel milk is 0.143%, which is more than that of cow milk (0.125%). In comparison to bovine milk, camel milk contains high content of zinc, manganese, copper and Vitamins C, E and A, and thus, exerts better anti-oxidative effects. The vitamin C content is approximately three times higher than that of cow milk. Camel milk also ameliorates steatohepatitis and oxidative stress in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Further, it has also been found to be beneficial in alcohol consumption related liver disease, which represents a spectrum of clinical illnesses and morphological changes that range from fatty liver to hepatic inflammation, cirrhosis and necrosis. The feeding of camel milk exhibits improvement in liver function by normalizing liver transferase enzymes along with significant reduction of serum triglycerides level. The anti-oxidative potential of camel milk can prove to be a potential therapy in autism disorder. Camel milk also possesses antigenotoxic and anticytotoxic effects.
Camel milk also lacks β-lactoglobulin as well as β-casein, which are main causative etiology for allergy in infants arising from bovine milk. Therefore, camel milk is a safe substitute to human milk for infants having allergy from cow or buffalo milk β-lactoglobulin and β-casein proteins. A number of studies have shown that ingestion of camel milk by diabetic rats, rabbits and dogs led to decrease in blood glucose level. Similar results have also been obtained in human beings. Consumption of camel milk by type 1 diabetic patients resulted in a significant reduction in the dose of insulin required to maintain long-term glycemic control and normalized blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin levels. Camel milk has also been reported to control the diabetes complications, such as collagen abnormalities and micro-albumin urea in type-1 diabetic patients. Consumption of camel milk has also exhibited positive results for type-2 diabetic patients. Camel milk has been reported to contain insulin like proteins (52 units/l). In many published scientific reports and papers in journals of international repute, camel milk consumption is recommended in the management of treatment or to treat jaundice, asthma, anemia, piles, tuberculosis, diabetes, autism and autoimmune diseases. Camel milk stabilizes lipid profile and restores the anti-oxidative status. The traditional medicinal benefits of camel milk are now being explored step by step for its wide pharmacological application.
