White Revolution

White Revolution

In 1950’s, India was not just struggling to achieve self-sustenance in agriculture production, but also in producing milk products such as dairy milk, butter and infant feeds. India has been importing butter, milk power and infant milk feeds. Very similar to revolution in agriculture the need was felt in animal husbandry to produce milk products.

Major Reasons for the White Revolution

Rearing cows and buffaloes was considered secondary to agriculture.

It was non-profit mode of small scale industry because of its primitiveness and poor maintenance of farms and animal sheds.

The milk producing animals such as cows and buffaloes were native Indian origin which did not produce enough milk to supply bigger population.

Farming in India was a rural industry which was suffering from necessary supporting systems like transportation, preservation and distribution of milk and other dairy products.

Farming also suffered from the usage of age old primitive technology and inadequate of veterinary specialists. Mortality rate of cows and buffaloes was very high due to communicable diseases which forced the milk vendors to show a very poor interest to continue the business in a large scale. A rural development programme was started by India’s National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in 1970. This national grid aimed to augment the milk production and distribute across all parts of the nation so as to prevent shortage of milk products.

The Government of India adopted the method and process followed by Gujarat’s AMUL (Anand Milk Union Limited) founded by Verghese Kurien. AMUL had a humble beginning in 1950’s in Gujarat with less then 200 farms. Milk was collected from these farms and it was supplied to the consumers in Mumbai(then called Bombay). As it was found very profitable among the farming community it was extended to more numbers in Gujarat. In 1960’s AMUL became a very well established dairy society in India. In 1966, Prime Minister Lalbahudar Sastri inaguraged Operation Flood with NDDB headed by Mr. Verghese Kurien. Verghese Kurien became the architect of the programme and gave professional help in bringing this White Revolution in 1970’s

“In 1955 our butter imports were 500 tons per year; today our cooperatives alone produce more than 12,000 tons of butter. Similarly, we imported 3000 tons of baby food in 1955; today our cooperatives alone produce 38,000 tons of baby food. By 1975 all imports of milk and milk products stopped. The import permitted was that of food aid under Operation Flood.”

Major Objectives of the Operation Flood:

1. TO increase milk production (“a flood of milk”)

2. TO increase rural incomes of dairy sheds.

3. TO provide fair prices for consumers

4. TO reduce the import burden on the national exchequer.

5. TO establish a National Milk Grid.

6. TO meet nutrients needs.

The White Revolution or Operation Flood programme was implemented in three phases. In the first phase (1970-79), 18 of the country’s main milk sheds were connected to the consumers of the four major cities namely Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta and Madras. The total cost of this phase was Rs.116 crores.

In the second phase (1981–85), the milk sheds were increased from 18 to 136 and the city market points increased to 290 for urban distribution of milk. By the end of 1985, more than 43,000 self sustaining village cooperatives with 42.5 lakh milk producers were covered. Domestic milk powder production increased from 22,000 tons in the pre-project year to 140,000 tons by 1989.

1. Sir Viswesvarayya who is considered to be a pioneer in economic planning in India was a chief civil engineer, scholar, statesman, politician and the 19th Diwan of Mysore, who served from 1912 to 1919. He received India’s highest honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955.

2. While the World Milk Dayiscelebrated on June 1 each year, National Milk Day is celebrated on November 26th. This day marks the birth anniversary of Verghese Kurien, the Father of White Revolution in India.

In the third phase (1985–96), the dairy cooperatives were enabled to expand and strengthen the required facilities to procure and market increasing volumes of milk. Veterinary medical care, cattle nutrition and artificial insemination services for cooperative members were expanded along with intensified dairy farm education. It went with adding 30,000 new dairy cooperatives to the 42,000 existing societies organized during Phase II. Milk sheds peaked to 173 in 1988-89 with the numbers of women members and Women’s Dairy Cooperative Societies increasing significantly.

Major Achievements of the White Revolution.

The phenomenal growth of milk production in India – from 20 million metric tons to 100 million MT with in a span of 40 years was made possible only because of the dairy cooperative movement. This has propelled India to emerge as the largest milk producing country in the World today. It not only achieved self sufficiency but also increased the production infant milk powder very considerably.

The dairy cooperative movement facilitated the Indian dairy farmers to take interest in cows and buffaloes which has resulted in the 500 million cattle population in the country which is the largest in the world.

The dairy cooperative movement has spread across the length and breadth of the country, covering more than 125,000 villages of 180 districts in 22 states.

The movement has been successful because of a well-developed network of procurement and distribution system with the support of National, State and Village governance.

Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers’ Federation (TCMPF)

The Tamil Nadu Dairy Development Corporation Limited was formed in 1972 to manage the activities such as milk procurement, processing and marketing of the milk and milk products. Based on Dr.Kurien pattern, Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers’ Federation (TCMPF) was formed in 1981. The per capita availability of milk in Tamil Nadu has increased from 169 gm/day in 1993-94 to 268 gm/day in 2017-18.

Activity

Collect information about Aavin in Tamilnadu and study its impact.