What's Behind India's Milk Crisis

Fifty Three Years Since The White Revolution, Just Why The World's Largest Milk-producing Nation Falls Short Of Demand, Forcing Imports.

- Ajita Shashidhar

OCTOBER TO MARCH ARE the busiest months for 35-year-old milk farmer Naresh Parmar in Sandesar village on the outskirts of Anand, home to the country’s largest dairy company, the ₹72,000 crore Amul. Typically known as the flush season, this is the time when milk production goes up by 25-30% due to favourable weather conditions (summer months are the slack season for milking), and Parmar on average pours 30-40 litres of milk every day at the Sandesar Milk Producers Cooperative Society (a part of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation or GCMMF, the parent body of Amul).

The flush season is a busy time for dairy companies, too. This is the time they procure the most and convert milk into skimmed milk powder, which eventually helps in meeting the heightened summer demand for icecream, lassi and milk shakes.

However, the flush months of October 2022-March 2023 were rather unusual. The ₹10 lakh crore Indian dairy industry, also the world’s largest milk producer, witnessed a decline in production. Parmar says the yield of his cows dipped 2-3%, while Amul MD Jayen Mehta says the decline in milk production was 1% in FY23.

But smaller cooperatives (and private dairies) have a starker story to narrate. Their deficit could be as much as 7-8%. “We normally get a flush between November and January, that’s when there is surplus milk. Last year there was no flush, and milk production came down, we faced a shortage of milk,” says Bhupinder Singh, CEO, Godrej Jersey. Dairy cooperatives of Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Bihar supply 65% of the milk procured by cooperatives. According to agriculture and dairy consultant Aditya Jha, private dairies have been importing milk powder to cope with the deficit, mainly from New Zealand and Europe. Though it is difficult to point out the exact percentage of decline, the shortfall is significant, claims Jha.