Principles and Techniques of Veterinary and AH Extension

LESSONS LEARNT THROUGH IMPLEMENTATION

Lessons learnt through the implementation of Operation Flood programme

• Operation Flood may be considered the central event of twentieth-century dairying in India. An analysis of the lessons learnt through the implementation of the programme should be useful for those involved in formulating dairy development policies and programmes for the developing nations of Asia and Africa.
  • The network of cooperative institutions created through the Operation Flood programme comprises 70000 dairy cooperative societies in 170 milksheds, encompassing 8.4 million milk-producer families. Average milk procurement by these cooperatives has reached some 12.3 million kg per day, of which 8.2 million litres are marketed as liquid milk, while the remaining is converted into products such as milk powder, butter, cheese, ghee and a wide range of traditional milk products.
  • Milk-processing capacity of approximately 15.6 million litres per day, chilling capacity of 6.5 million litres per day and milk powder production capacity of 726 tonnes per day have been established through the programme.
  • One of the challenging aspects of dairy development in a tropical or subtropical country is the movement of milk over long distances. In Operation Flood, this has been made possible through the operation of about 140 insulated rail milk tankers, each with a capacity of 40000 litres, supplemented by another 25 rail tankers of 21000-litre capacity. Approximately 1000 other insulated road milk tankers operate throughout the country as well. This has enabled the operation of a national milk grid, balancing regional fluctuations in milk procurement and demand-and-supply gaps resulting from concentrated production of liquid milk in selected milk sheds.
  • To balance seasonal variations in milk supply and demand caused by low milk production during the summer months, a large milk powder storage capacity has been created for buffer stocking.
  • The investment and achievements in modernizing the Indian dairy industry have had a major impact on milk production. Annual production, which had stagnated between 20 million and 22 million tonnes during the 1960s, has steadily increased to around 59 million tonnes, an annual growth rate of about 7.8 percent.
  • Per capita availability of milk, which had declined consistently during the two decades between 1951 and 1970, dropping to 107 g at the start of Operation Flood, is now 187 g per day, despite a substantial increase in population.
  • Commercial imports of dairy commodities were a regular feature in the 1950s and 1960s, comprising 50 to 60 percent of the dairy industry's total throughput. Today, imports of dairy commodities are restricted to those donated by the EEC for implementing Operation Flood (Mielke, 1993) and their percentage of the total dairy throughput is negligible. All these developments have helped raise India to the top ranking in milk production in the world.
  • A number of programmers and policies have played a role in this success. Certainly, the introduction of modern technology, both at the farmer level and in the processing of milk and products, has been important. Similarly, establishing an urban market has provided the stability necessary to encourage farmers to invest in increased milk production. The induction of professional managers to serve farmers has reversed the usual pattern of farmers as supplicants and officials as "benefactors". Perhaps most important, however, is the cooperative structure itself. By giving farmers command over the resources they create, Operation Flood has ensured that they receive the maximum return from each rupee spent by consumers on milk and milk products, and it is this that has provided the incentive on which the growth of the dairy industry has been based.
  • The success of Operation Flood has resolved many difficult issues relating to development. It has demonstrated how food aid can be used to enhance domestic production if administered with care. It has also shown how technology can be harnessed so that neither the dependence on imported technology nor its capital intensity becomes counterproductive.
  • Some of the dairy plants set up by NDDB during the implementation of Operation Flood are based on the latest technology and are comparable to those in advanced countries. The unique cooperative infrastructure with which NDDB works make the adoption of technologies and the dissemination of knowledge relatively easy, and this has enabled Operation Flood to facilitate the application of modern technologies to enhance milk production.