In 1970, India set in motion the ‘White Revolution’, the world’s biggest dairy development program, led by Dr. Verghese Kurien. ‘Operation Flood’, as it is otherwise known, transformed the dairy-deficient nation into the global leader in milk production. For the millions living in rural India, milk farming became the largest source of employment and income.
India boasted the highest cattle population in the 1960s, yet it ranked among the lowest milk producers in the world.
Between 1961 and 1970, total milk production had barely moved from 20.4 million tons to 20.8 million tons. Instead, the country relied on large scale imports to meet its requirements.
To address this growing dairy crisis, a cooperative milk movement was launched in three phases over three decades, steered by social entrepreneurs, political leaders and millions of milk farmers.
The idea was simple: To leave out the middle-man and bridge the gap between dairy farmers and consumers. This way the consumer paid a lower price and the spoils of the labor could directly benefit the farmer.
Ultimately, farmers would feel incentivized to boost milk production, and a growing population would get access to more types of milk products.
Learning from Anand
Until 1946, a private butter maker, Polson, enjoyed government support and monopoly over sourcing of milk from farmers in Gujarat’s Kaira which it later supplied to Bombay. Polson reportedly compensated farmers poorly.
The farmers went on strike that year, on the advice of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and eventually took control of their supply. A cooperative was formed, headquartered in Anand, which introduced its own brand, Amul, by 1950.
Amul’s success story was scripted by Verghese Kurien, who would go on to be called the ‘father of the White Revolution’. The dairy engineering graduate transformed a dusty little town in Gujarat into the milk capital of India.
Kurien, who described his involvement in the district as “a strange, pre-planned act of destiny”, pioneered systems through which producers could participate in their own development and connect directly with end consumers.
Tribhuvandas Kishibai Patel, an activist farmer, was the founding chairman of Amul and the man who hired Kurien.
Harichand Megha Dalaya was an engineer who teamed up with Kurien to devise a technology to produce dry milk and baby food using surplus buffalo milk.
Elsewhere in the world, buffalo milk had been written off as a source for skim milk powder, because it contained higher levels of lactose and solids. Dalaya’s resourcefulness widened the scope of Indian dairy manufacturing.
Together, they were the Amul Trinity.
When Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri visited the district in 1964 to inaugurate a cattle feed factory, he felt the Anand model should be replicated across India.
A movement was born. Shastri formed the National Dairy Development Board in 1965 and appointed Kurien as its head.
Phases of the Flood
The nation-wide Operation Flood unfolded in three phases over three decades. Seed capital was raised by selling the skim milk powder and butter oil that had been received as food aid, from the European Economic Community via the World Food Programme.
In Phase I, from 1970 to 1980, 1.5 million farm families began supplying out of 27 milk sheds in 10 states. Rural procurement swelled from 0.46 million liters a day in the 1960s, to 2.2 million liters per day.
Over the next phase, between 1981 and 1985, 4.25 million producers from 43,000 villages had joined in. About 136 milk sheds were active by this time, selling to 290 urban markets. As more producers’ cooperatives directly marketed milk, their access to profits improved.
In the final phase, which continued until the mid-1990s, the number of farm families in the movement rose to 10 million. The emphasis was now on veterinary care and better breeding practices. Soon, self-sufficiency was in sight.
An NDDB report from the period is said to have noted: “The industry as a whole produces enough milk and milk products to ensure that the country imports virtually no dairy products.”
Empowering women farmers
The responsibility of livestock management has traditionally typically rested within women in India. As such, women dairy farmers were and continue to be crucial in India’s dairy transformation.
Around 1.7 million women were members of the operation, and a number of all-women cooperatives also emerged.
Some estimates hold that 75 million Indian women are engaged in dairy work. Over the years, several women dairy entrepreneurs have won awards and become millionaires. A woman chairperson, Dr Amrita Patel, led the NDDB after Kurien, from 1998 to 2014.
After the flood
From around 20 million tons at the outset, milk output had exceeded 70 million tons by the end of the operation. India was able to double its per capita milk consumption, leaving behind an era of milk rationing and aid dependence.
India’s White Revolution is a testament to the power of collective ambition.
