THE recent spilling of milk in Delhi by milkmen from Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere to protest against the lowering of prices by processing units needs to be logically probed. One obvious reason for this is the higher milk yield due to a favourable climate this year, causing a seasonal adverse effect on its price. However, there are still wider policy issues which require special attention to address the problem.
The steep growth of cereal production as a consequence of the Green Revolution in Punjab and Haryana got dampened with time which was expected to happen due to the saturation of technology diffusion and slackening of momentum of innovations. Various other avenues of growth within the farm sector were open but were not properly taken care of as the economy lacked a proper direction.
The dairy sector was one such potential area which has a close association with the crop sector in terms of helping in agricultural diversification, improving soil health and regulating farm income apart from being an important avenue of nutritional security. Some efforts were, however made to improve the genetic base of cattle, nutritional aspect of feeding, networking veterinary services and streamlining milk marketing, including processing and distribution. But a number of gaps still persist due to which it could not gain the desired momentum.
Production up
About one-third of the total farm income is contributed by livestock. As the contribution of the farm sector to the net state domestic product fell from 46% in 1993-94 to 25% in 2009-10, the contribution of this sub-sector also tumbled from 13% to 8% but it has a scope for revival. On the other hand, the production of milk in Punjab went up at a fast rate.
A sharp rise in production of milk, much faster than the size of population, has made the picture rosy as is clear from the facts. For instance, milk output in the state, which was merely 24 lakh tonnes in 1975-76, shot up to 77 lakh tonnes in 2000-01 and further to 94 lakh tonnes in 2009-10, an increase of almost four times.
The per capita availability during this period more than doubled with 915 g/day in 2009-10 as compared to the national average of 281 g/cap/day. Despite all this, the occupation of dairy farming is considered less profitable and more back-breaking because of the rising cost of feed, wages of labour required for care and upkeep of animals, heavy initial investment and low farm gate prices. The quandary is that the consumer feels hit hard by high milk prices, faces adulteration and various other malpractices. An effort is made to identify some gaps and possible ways to bridge such gaps.
Size of business
The number, kind and quality of dairy herd are the basic parameters to be viewed. In 1990 the number of female adult animals (above 3 years age in case of local cow and buffalo and 2.5 years in case of cross-bred cows) was 44 lakh which has recently shown a declining trend, touching a level of 39 lakh in 2007. Of this, about 70% animals were in milk as against only 63% during 1990 and the remaining are dry or not-calved.
| Unproductive and uneconomical animals, which put a heavy burden on the livestock economy of the state, must find an alternative economic use rather than leaving them as stray. Such neglected large herds of dairy animals of migrant Gujjars are sources of infectious diseases. |
Further, local cows are increasingly being replaced by cross-bred cows. Thus with the improvement of stock, the average yield per animal went up to 4.35 lit/day in 2007 as against 3.18 lit/day in 1990, which is still too low in comparison to the fast-rising cost of dairying. From these facts, it is clear that as an economy measure, quality of animals rather than the number is gaining importance. As compared to general crop farming, its profitability lags much behind apart from the high degree of risk involved.
Further, it is a labour-intensive enterprise and the problem of labour in-migration is getting serious with the operation of MGNREGA in labour-surplus states. Unproductive and uneconomical animals, which put a heavy burden on the livestock economy of the state, must find an alternative economic use rather than leaving them as stray. Such neglected large herds of dairy animals of migrant Gujjars are sources of infectious diseases.
With the declining herd of animals in the state, a greater quantity of fodder and care is available for productive animals even if the area under fodder crops remains at about 8% of the cultivated area, thus improving the productivity of milch animals further.
Another silver lining is that the area under basmati crop has shot up. In the basmati belt the cost of feed and fodder is relatively low due to the fact that basmati straw is fed to animals without much problem and after wheat and before transplanting basmati, an additional short duration fodder crop can be taken. In other regions, the high cost of feed and fodder makes dairy a less economical proposition. A systematic animal improvement programme through breeding, veterinary services, nutrition, proper care and management needs to be undertaken with zeal.
Poor marketing
In order to ensure remunerative prices of milk to dairy farmers, it has also become necessary to streamline its marketing. Being highly perishable in nature, milk requires pasteurisation, processing scientifically and disposal at the earliest possible. The number of organised milk processing units in the state has gone up, particularly in the private sector, and these are currently having an annual processing capacity equivalent to about 25% of the total milk production.
Still the producer-milk vendor-consumer is the most important channel of milk marketing in which the middleman mops up 25-30 per cent of the consumer's rupee apart from indulging in malpractices, particularly adulteration. Milk producers with one or two animals and scattered over a large area constitute the nitty-gritty of problems of high collection cost of milk, unhygienic conditions and high cost of veterinary services. Initiatives by producers or consumers to bridge this gap through cooperatives can play an important role.
Consumers on the other end face serious problems of steeply rising milk prices, almost ten times in three decades (retail price increasing from 2.53/lit in 1980 to 24.69/lit in 2010) and poor quality of milk and milk products due to adulteration and even the large-scale manufacture of synthetic milk. In view of lack of a suitable and effective food law, adulterators play with the health of people and get away scot-free. Policy measures in this regard need to be revamped urgently and immediately.
Value addition
The number of milk processing units in the state was only 25 in 1994-95, of which 11 and 14 were run by Milkfed and the private sector respectively. The number shot up to 74 with the private sector accounting for 60 units. The total milk processed is 6.18 lakh litres per day or 22.7 lakh tonnes a year, accounting for about one-fourth of the total milk output in the state. With the increase in the number of milk processing units in the state, some improvement in milk marketing has taken place but still a lot needs to be done in this direction, particularly in terms of generating exportable potential of milk and milk products, through improvements in the quality standards.
Further, most milk processing units are neither able to cater to the domestic market nor have improved the quality of milk and milk products up to the international sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards (SPS) set under the WTO as has been done by Scandinavian countries, Australia and New Zealand.
The milk production system also needs an overhaul and there is need to establish scientific commercial dairy farms, ensuring the delivery of standardised feed and high-yielding seeds of fodder crops, making an easy access to veterinary schemes and programmes to manage the large proportion of unproductive animals to make it a successful venture in the state.
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