White Revolution in India – UPSC IAS

• The White Revolution is the package programme that raised India’s milk output, carried out through Operation Flood and a national network of producer-owned dairy cooperatives.
• Milk output stood almost still at about 17–22 million tonnes from 1950-51 to 1970-71, then climbed to 247.87 million tonnes in 2024-25.
• India has been the world’s largest milk producer since 1998, with about 25% of world output.
• It matters as much to dairying as the Green Revolution did to grain, and its base is better breeding, new technology and cooperative marketing.

The White Revolution and Operation Flood

Origin

• Gujarat came first. Milk producers of Kaira formed the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union (Amul) on 14 December 1946 under Tribhuvandas Patel.
  • The Anand cooperative became the most successful of its kind, and its model came to be called the Anand pattern.
• Verghese Kurien (1921–2012), born at Kozhikode, is the “Father of the White Revolution” and one of the great farm leaders of the 20th century. His birthday, 26 November, is National Milk Day.
• National Dairy Development Board (NDDB): set up in 1965, after Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s visit to Anand in 1964, with Kurien as first chairman.
  • Its mandate was to organise dairy development through cooperatives on the Anand model across the country.
• Operation Flood: launched in 1970. The name is often used interchangeably with the White Revolution, and it is usually ranked as the biggest dairy programme anywhere.
  • Its first funds came from selling skimmed milk powder and butter oil donated by the European Economic Community through the World Food Programme.
• The cooperatives are owned and managed by milk producers. Apart from finance, they give consultancy and technical advice.

Objectives

• Form cooperative societies in the villages.
• Procure, transport and store milk at chilling plants.
• Provide cattle feed.
• Make a wide range of milk products, and manage their marketing.
• Supply superior breeds of cows and buffaloes, with health services, veterinary care and artificial insemination.
• Provide extension services.

The Cooperative Chain

• The technology of the White Revolution rests on an extensive system of cooperative societies, in tiers:
  • village societies at the bottom;
  • district unions above them;
  • State federations next;
  • the National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India on top.
• Milk gathered at a village collection centre moves promptly to the dairy plant or milk chilling centre.
  • The village society and truck operators keep to strict collection times, because raw milk spoils quickly.
• Producers’ cooperative unions run the chilling centres. This serves farmers who live far from them, and cuts out the middlemen who used to exploit producers.

Phases

• Phase II coincided with the Sixth Plan.
  • It sought better marketing in 144 more cities, along with fodder, disease control and better breeds.
  • Older counts for 1985 give about 35,000 villages and over 36 lakh members.
  • Raksha, a vaccine against cattle disease, came from Hyderabad. NDDB set up Indian Immunologicals Ltd there in 1982 to supply foot-and-mouth vaccine at an affordable price.
• Phase III added about 30,000 new societies and strengthened the base for procuring and marketing more milk.
  • A later count gives 1,35,439 village societies with about 1.4 crore (14 million) members.

• In this table, the 2009-10 row should read 116.4 million tonnes and 273 grams; 112.2 million tonnes belongs to 2008-09. The 2000-01 availability is 217 grams in the National Dairy Development Board’s series.

Bovine Base and Distribution

• Livestock resources are the base of dairying. The livestock total was 536.76 million in the 20th Livestock Census (2019), and the 21st census began in October 2024.
• Bovines: 30.22 crore in 2019, against 29.96 crore in 2012. The animals in milk rose faster, from 8.3 crore in 2014 to 10.48 crore in 2023.
• Rearing is mostly a subsidiary occupation. Farmers feed a few animals on straw and crop by-products, and only about 3% of the land is grassland.
• Crop farming still leans on animals: draught power once ploughed about 100 million hectares, some 60% of the cultivated area.

Cattle and Buffaloes

• Indian cattle yield poorly. An older comparison set about one litre per day against 30–40 litres in New Zealand, Denmark and the Netherlands, which earned the name “tea-cup cow”.
• Cross-breeding, with Jersey, Holstein-Friesian, Brown Swiss, Guernsey and Ayrshire, has been a main response.

Milk by States

• Leading States, 2024-25: Uttar Pradesh 15.66%, Rajasthan 14.82%, Madhya Pradesh 9.12%, Gujarat 7.78% and Maharashtra 6.71%, together 54.09%.
  • In 2012-13, Uttar Pradesh held 17.62%, Rajasthan 10.53%, Andhra Pradesh with Telangana 9.64% and Gujarat 7.79%. Rajasthan has gained most since.
• Gujarat, the cradle of the movement, ranks fourth by volume. Its importance lies in the institutions it gave the country.
• Milk sheds and the market: cooperative milk sheds feed the big cities, and a Milk Grid moves milk to offset regional and seasonal imbalance.

Achievements

• Dairying as livelihood: it made a sound impact on rural people, who took it up as a subsidiary occupation.
  • Dairying now supports about 8.5 crore rural households. Women form about 69% of the livestock workforce.
• World leader: output climbed from roughly 17 million tonnes (1950-51) to 121.8 million (2010-11) and 247.87 million (2024-25), about 14.6 times the starting level.
  • Its value was ₹11.16 lakh crore in 2022-23.
• Per capita availability: about 125 grams a day before the White Revolution, 124–128 grams from 1950-51 to 1980-81, 263–273 grams around 2009-10, and 485 grams in 2024-25.
• Imports: purchases of milk and milk products fell sharply, saving foreign exchange, and India began to export some products.
• Small producers: landless labourers and small and marginal cultivators gained most, and they supplied about two-thirds of the milk procured under Operation Flood.
  • About 14 million farmers came under the 1,35,439 village societies.
  • An older estimate set the extra income at about ₹2,500 crore a year for 9 million farmers in 70,000 villages.
• Modern dairy industry: plants and infrastructure expanded, and the structure gained stability.
• Research and training: centres at Anand, Mehsana and Palanpur (Banaskantha), with three regional centres at Siliguri, Jalandhar and Erode.
• Livestock insurance: approved in February 2006, it was piloted in 100 districts during 2005-06 and 2006-07, and became a full scheme in 2008-09, later reaching 300 districts.
  • It protects farmers against loss from the untimely death of animals. Cover reached 29.10 lakh animals between 2006-07 and 2010-11.
• Better animals: extensive cross-breeding improved livestock quality, and major health schemes were started to keep herds disease-free.

Problems and Prospects

Problems

• Costly collection: gathering milk from remote areas is expensive, slow and uneconomic, so producers earn less and consumers pay more.
• Poor hygiene: cattle in most villages live in unhygienic conditions, which lowers both quantity and quality.
• Weak marketing: the infrastructure needs much improvement, and much village milk still becomes low-return ghee.
• Inferior breeds: India has some of the finest breeds, yet most animals are poor yielders.
• Ineffective extension services.
• Animal disease: the lumpy skin disease outbreak of 2022 killed well over a lakh cattle, with Rajasthan worst hit.
• Thin fodder base: little land is under grass, and animals depend on crop residues.

Replication and Prospects

• Rising demand and a large milch herd give dairying a strong future, and liberalised trade opens export markets once quality and infrastructure improve.
• The Technology Mission for Dairy Development promoted Anand-model cooperatives, aiming to cover about 60% of the country’s area.

• Free artificial insemination at the farmer’s door has reached 605 districts under the national programme. Sex-sorted semen and 22 in-vitro fertilisation labs are newer tools.