Demand-Side Challenges:

♤ India is slated to witness a boom in dairy demand of over 6 per cent annually, due to increasing population and increase in income.

However, the average annual growth in supply is only about 4%. The demand-supply interplay effect is evident in steadily rising milk prices in the recent past. We clearly need a Second White Revolution.

Way Forward

♤ Large scale dairy farms: Large scale cooperatives and corporates can establish integrated dairy farms, with automated milking, feeding, processing, integrated feed production and in-house breed improvement. They can sell their produce to other dairy plants or can do further value addition.

♤ Hub and Spoke Model: The main farm (hub), owned by an anchor has all the integrated facilities for milking, feed production and milk processing with a cattle count of over 500 cows. The connected/satellite farms (spokes), with 50 to 200 cattle each, have basic infrastructure for milking and cattle management and are owned by progressive dairy farmers in close proximity to the main farm. The anchor provides technical support (veterinary care, feed management, and training) to the satellite farms. This model will be socially inclusive.

♤ Progressive dairy farmer: This model envisages investment in farm infrastructure by an anchor. Cow stalls are leased out on nominal charges to farmers, who are responsible for housing of cows and managing them under guidance of the anchor. The automation level of the farms can depend on the farm size. The milk would be purchased under a buy-back arrangement by the anchor. This model enables the smallest dairy farmers to avail the benefits of technology, scale and systems. This model includes the concept of building hostels for cows and to establish mid-sized dairy farms with 200-300 cattle.

♤ Community Model: Community ownership and management of common infrastructure for housing, breeding, feeding and milking under a cooperative/producer company model shall be applicable here. A number of such farms within a restricted geographical periphery can avail of technical support services on a pooling basis. Farmers are not restricted to sell their milk to a specific entity. Milking machines, equipment, bulk coolers and milk storage facilities are owned by the community.