I. Dairy farming in Indian rural
economy
India ranks first in milk production,
accounting for 17 per cent of the world’s
production. During 2013–14, milk produc-
tion peaked at 137.69 million tonnes, thus
becoming an important livelihood and sec-
ondary source of income for 70million rural
households engaged in dairying. Seventy
per cent of the workforce in dairying are
women.
1
The average year-on-year (YOY)
growth rate of milk at 4.04 per cent vis-à-
vis the world average of 2.2 per cent shows
sustained growth in availability of milk and
milk products for the growing population.
Indian agricultural system is predomi-
nantly a mixed crop–livestock farming
system, where dairying forms an important
livelihood activity for most of the farmers,
supporting agriculture in the formof critical
inputs, contributing to the health and nutri-
tion of the households, supplementing
incomes, offering employment opportunities
and finally in times of emergency, livestock
as an easily saleable asset provides liquidity
to manage the risks. It acts as a supplemen-
tary and complementary enterprise.
The following points characterise India’s
dairy farming and its relevance to inclusive
growth:
•
About 70 per cent of India’s milk pro-
duction is contributed by small and
marginal farmers. Seventy million of the
reported 147 million rural households
depend on dairy in varying degrees for
their livelihoods. Farmers of marginal,
small and semi-medium operational
holdings (area less than 4 hectare)
own about 88 per cent of the livestock.
The base line study
2
of National Dairy
Plan (NDP) implemented by National
Dairy Development Board (NDDB)
in 14 major dairying states shows that
35 per cent of the surveyed households
are milch animal owning households
(MAHs). Out of theseMAH, 23 per cent
are landless, 41 per centmarginal farmers,
27 per cent small farmers, 6 per cent
medium farmer and only 1 per cent are
large farmers.
•
Livestock is more equitably and evenly
distributed than land and other liveli-
hood assets (Table 4.1). Small and mar-
ginal farmers ownmore than 75 per cent
ofmilk producing animals in the country,
but only about 40 per cent of farmland.
Dairy-based Livelihoods
*
Chapter
4
*
This chapter benefits from discussions with sev-
eral stake holders including the government, NGOs,
producer companies and co-operatives. The authors
are grateful to BAIF for organising a round table on
small holder dairy farming for this chapter where dairy
farmers, representatives of dairy co-operatives, sector
experts, private companies and government represen-
tative participated. Rich learnings of these discussions
form part of the chapter.
1
GoI, 2015, Economic survey 2014–15, http://
indiabudget.nic.in/es2014-15/echapter-vol2.pdf, seen
on 12 August 2015.
2
The base line study was carried out in 2012–13
and covered 14,992 households in 1,257 villages in 420
talukas
of 14 states.
