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A brief history of India’s White Revolution: the story of remarkable individuals and collective spirit
Posted on May 17th, 2023
1942
Colonial exploitation
In 1942-43, several Britishers living in Bombay suddenly fell sick. Investigations into the matter revealed that the chief cause was the milk they were consuming. A sample of milk was sent to UK for testing. The test result read: “The milk of Bombay is more polluted than the gutter water of London.” Consequently, the British government was forced to come up with a plan to improve the quality of milk coming into the city.
The search for a reliable source of milk in large volumes led the Bombay government to Kaira district (now called Kheda in Gujarat, but then part of Bombay Presidency) some 330 kilometres to the north.
By then Kaira already had the reputation of being a milk hub of sorts. Around 1895, an Englishman had started a butter factory some 15km north of Anand in this district. A German had also set up a casein factory nearby. Casein is the milk protein which in the early 20th century was used to make plastic. Casein plastic was used to make products like buttons and fountain pens. In 1926, a Parsi businessman Pestonjee Edulji had built a factory to make butter that was sold under the brand name Polson in the region. Polson was to be a household name before another brand from Anand killed it off.
The Bombay government asked Polson if it could supply milk every day to the city from Kaira across 330km. Something like this hadn’t been done in India. Polson pasteurised the milk in its plant and sent it in cans wrapped in gunny bags drenched in cold water. With this pioneering experiment of shipping liquid milk across such long distances in 1945 was born the Bombay Milk Scheme.
Polson had the monopoly on milk supply; Bombay offered a large readymade market for the farmers’ produce; and consumers had access to better quality. It was to be a win-win for all involved. Except it wasn’t.
The farmers of Kaira increased production to such an extent that the district had already become the largest and best-known milk producer in the entire region.
But the farmers very soon realised that only a fraction of the consumer price reached them as Polson and its contractors pocketed most of the money.
Kaira’s farmers recounted their story of exploitation to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who belonged to the same region. Patel’s answer was that the farmers had to be in control of the entire milk value chain—from production to marketing. He asked dairy farmers to organise milk cooperatives, which would give them control over the resources they generated. He assigned Morarji Desai, his deputy, to coordinate the effort. Desai identified a young freedom fighter and the vice chairman of the Kaira District Congress Committee, Tribhuvandas Patel, to head the cooperative.
Despite the formation of farmer groups, the problem of exploitation persisted. Polson would somehow find a way to pay farmers less. It would complain of flies in the milk or pay them less on account of lower fat content in the milk.
1945
Battle cry
When Tribhuvandas Patel and farmers went back to Sardar Patel, his battle cry was “Remove Polson”. But to do that the entire dairy movement in the district had to be united and, above all, they had to own their dairies. Since it was 1945, he warned the farmers that the British would not take such a move kindly.
1946
An Indian milk co-op is born
By January 1946, the farmers had decided to take on Polson and the government. They decided not to sell any milk to Polson and that a cooperative would be set up in every village of Kaira. A union of these cooperatives headquartered in Anand would process and market the milk. BMS rejected the proposal. The farmers of Kaira went on a strike for 15 days. They were happy to pour the milk on the streets rather than sell a drop to Polson. The strike crippled Polson and BMS went bust.
The British government relented hoping that bunch of Indian buffalo farmers and their leaders in Gandhi caps didn’t know a thing about dairy farming and would come crawling back to the old arrangement when their experiment inevitably bombed.
Through 1946, Tribhuvandas patel walked from village to village persuading farmers of Kaira to form cooperative milk societies. By December 1946, the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Limited (KDCMPUL), the mother of Amul was born. India’s biggest market, Bombay, was now directly linked to the farmers of Kaira.
In 1946, a young engineer called Verghese Kurien was selected by the British government in India to study in Western universities and gain a Master’s degree. Kurien belonged to a wealthy and privileged Kerala Syrian Christian family. His grand uncle John Matthai was to become the independent India’s first Railway Minister. While young Kurien was interested in metallurgy and nuclear physics, he was chosen for a Government of India’s agriculture ministry sponsored degree at Michigan State University, then considered the best place for dairy research in the world.
1949
The unwilling young man
While Kurien had earned a master’s degree in metallurgy with some mandatory courses on dairy technology, upon his return to India, he was posted in Anand as a researcher in the Government India creamery in 1949. Disinterested in his job, Kurien was looking for the nearest exit.
1950
An offer that couldn’t be refused
The Kaira Cooperative’s plant was in the same campus as Kurien’s office. In his spare time, and there was plenty of it, he frequently helped fix the outdated 1910-era machinery it used.
After a routine repair job, Kurien told Tribhuvandas to scrap the rusty plant and build a new one if the cooperative had to have any chance of survival. Tribhivandas took up the challenge of arranging the Rs 40,000 it took for the new plant and asked Kurien to build it. It was merely an unpaid side gig for Kurien. When the plant was built and Kurien’s resignation from the government job finally accepted, Tribhuvandas offered him the job of the general manager at KDCMPUL in 1950. It would be tempting to say the rest is history. It wasn’t as easy.
1952
Bootstrapping a revolution
By 1952, against all odds, KDCMPUL was supplying 20,000 litres of milk compared to 2000 litres in 1948. Anand’s farmers were supplying milk to Bombay’s consumers in insulated railway vans.
The success of Kaira cooperative movement was by now in no doubt. But a problem of demand-and-supply cropped up as the Kaira-Bombay market linkage grew stronger. Buffaloes produced twice the milk in winters than summers. There was no market for the excess winter milk, while there was no way to store it for supply during the lean summer months.
The only solution was to set up a processing plant to convert the extra milk into products like butter and milk powder. While the Western world knew how to turn cow milk into powder, there was no way to make buffalo milk into reconstitutable powder.
Thankfully, Kurien’s mate at Michigan State University and ace dairy technologist Harichand Dalaya was at hand. Dalaya hailed from a prosperous Yadav family in Uttar Pradesh that ran a successful dairy business in Karachi with 300-odd Sindhi cows. The family had enough money to send him to Michigan before it was forced to wind up operations in Karachi post Partition. Dalaya invented a way to spray dry buffalo milk into powder when every single dairy technologist in the world had thought it impossible.
1955
Scaling up
Dalaya’s invention paved the way for India’s first milk powder and butter plant that was inaugurated by Prime Minster Jawaharlal Nehru on October 31, 1955, the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel.
1956
Amul the brand is born
By 1956, Kurien realised that Kaira Cooperative’s increased milk productivity needed an even bigger market, that in turn needed better branding and marketing. A chemist at the Cooperative came up with the name Amul. It was a derivative of the Sanskrit word ‘amulya’ that meant ‘priceless’. It not just symbolised the pride of swadeshi production, was short and catchy and could be an easy acronym for Anand Milk Union Limited. In 1957 Kaira Cooperative registered the brand ‘Amul’ that would soon become one of India’s best-known brands.
1964
For an Anand everywhere
On October 31,1964 when PM Lal Bahadur Shastri visited Anand on yet another birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, he asked Kurien to replicate the Anand model across India. Despite the support of the PM, the plan failed to take off due to bureaucratic meddling and turf wars within the government.
1965
The National Dairy Development board
To fulfil the wishes of the PM, and in national interest, Kurien convinced the Kaira Cooperative that it should create The National Dairy Development Board without central government funding in 1965.
1966
An advertising icon in born
In 1966, Amul upped its advertising game. It hired an agency called the Advertising and Sales Promotion Company (ASP) with a mandate to knock Polson off from its perch as Bombay’s top butter brand. ASP’s art director Eustace Fernandes created the iconic Amul girl to take on Polson’s ‘butter girl’. It had also launched several milk powder, butter, condensed milk, cheese and baby food.
1970
A billion litre dream
In July 1970, NDDB officially launched ‘the billion-litre idea’ with the goal to take India’s dairy industry from a drop to a flood. It was to become the biggest dairy development programme in the world.
Operation Flood would work in a completely decentralised fashion. Milk would be collected by people of the villages; at the district level the dairies would be handled by the district unions; at the state level the marketing would be taken care of by the marketing federations. It was to ensure that the entire value chain remained in the hands of the small farmers.
1976
Real life in reel
Manthan, a film based on Kurien’s efforts to collectivise Gujarat’s dairy farmers and the Operation Flood, directed by Shyam Benegal was released. Made on a shoestring budget of Rs 10 lakh funded entirely by the dairy farmers of Gujarat who contributed a rupee each.
The film starred young actors like Smita Patil, Girish Karnad, Naseeruddin Shah and Anant Nag and won several awards.
But Amul used it as part of its sales pitch to farmers to join the cooperative movement and drive home the message of the economic and social benefits of the cooperation.
1981
The White Revolution gathers steam
The second phase of Operation Flood from 1981 to 1985. It was implemented with the seed capital from European countries and a Rs 200 crore World Bank loan. During this period, the number of milksheds increased from 18 to 136. Moreover, 290 urban markets increased the outlets for milk produced. By the end of this phase, a self-sustaining system of 43,000 village cooperatives covering 4.25 million milk producers was well established. Milk powder production increased from 22,000 tonnes in the pre-Operation Flood year to 140,000 tons by 1989. Direct marketing of milk by producers’ cooperatives increased by several million litres a day.
1985
Investments in technology
The third phase of Operation Flood, which lasted from 1985 to 1996, added 30,000 new dairy cooperatives to the 42,000 existing societies. The number of women members and women’s dairy cooperative societies increased considerably. This phase focused on assisting unions to expand and strengthen their procurement and marketing infrastructure to manage the increasing volumes of milk. Veterinary health-care services, feed and artificial insemination services for cooperative members were extended. Animal health and nutrition was the big focus area.
1998
Becoming the world leader
In 1998, India overtook the US to become the largest milk producer in the world.
The same year, the World Bank published a report on the impact of dairy development in India and looked at its own contribution to this. The audit revealed that on the Rs 200 crore the World Bank invested in Operation Flood, the net return into India’s rural economy was a massive Rs 24,000 crore each year over a period of ten years. Certainly no other development programme, either before or since, has matched this remarkable input-output ratio.
2023
Challenges ahead
India remains the largest milk producer in the world with an annual output of 220 million tonnes. Milk is by far the most valuable component of Indian agriculture (bigger in value than rice and wheat) and the dairy industry accounts for nearly 5% of the country’s economy.
While the White Revolution helped India make enormous gains, the country’s milk productivity is still nowhere near global standards. In 2023, climate change, declining availability of fodder and creeping weaknesses in breeding programmes pose a challenge in retaining the advantages Operation Flood offered.
India’s White Revolution: from a trickle to Operation Flood
Posted on May 15th, 2023
India’s White Revolution that made the country abundant in milk was born in 1970.
The Green Revolution that helped India achieve self-sufficiency in foodgrains such as wheat and rice had a head start of more than five years.
The Green Revolution is considered one of the most important events in the history of modern India. But the gains from the White Revolution are far more spectacular.
India’s milk production from 1950 to 1974 grew at annually at 1.36%, far below the rate of population growth. That meant the availability of milk for an Indian shrunk by 15% during the period. The Operation Flood or the White Revolution set in motion in 1970 has now made India the largest milk producer in the world. The 220 million tonnes of milk it produced in 2022 is about 24% of the global output. Indians have access to 440g of milk a day, far more than the recommended daily average of 387g. Milk is by far the most valuable component of Indian agriculture (bigger in value than rice and wheat) and the dairy industry accounts for nearly 5% of the country’s economy.
What did the White Revolution do?
The White Revolution broadly rung in three fundamental changes. One, created a nationwide chain of milk-specific cooperatives that could source milk from a network of millions of small farmers owning as few as two or three animals. With access to big volumes of milk, the cooperatives could invest in large processing infrastructure. They set up small rural collection centres with milk chilling and basic quality check equipment where farmers could sell their output twice a day. The quality checks ensured that farmers’ milk was tested for the fat content, and they were paid fairly in accordance with quality not quantity of milk. At once, it brought in a level of quality assurance the country’s unorganised milk sector was not used to.
Two, The White Revolution introduced new technologies that improved milk productivity. Native Indian cattle breeds such as Sindhi were cross-bred with European Jersey, Brown Swiss and Holstein-Friesian cows. The cross-bred cattle could withstand the hot and tropical Indian conditions, and yet produce more milk. This could only be accomplished by making veterinary services and techniques such as artificial insemination more accessible.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, an extremely perishable produce of farmers was effectively linked to urban markets. All regional cooperatives branded their dairy products—from Amul in Gujarat to Sudha in Bihar, and a national marketing campaign around milk and its benefits as a cheap and accessible source of nutrition helped create sustainable demand.
An important outcome of The White Revolution was the impact on gender equality. Women’s participation in the dairy industry increased to nearly 70%.
Verghese Kurien, one of the architects of the White Revolution and a founder of the co-operative dairy brand Amul in his 2005 autobiography I Too Had a Dream notes: “In 1998 the World Bank published a report on the impact of dairy development in India and looked at its own contribution to this. The audit revealed that of the Rs 200 crore the World Bank invested in Operation Flood, the net return into India’s rural economy was a massive Rs 24,000 crore each year over a period of ten years. Certainly no other development programme, either before or since, has matched this remarkable input-output ratio.”
From providing oil to fibre to food, coconut is India’s ‘wish-fulfilling’ tree
Posted on May 10th, 2023
If there is a lesson every primary school child in India is taught, it is that the tall-standing coconut palm found in abundance in India’s coastal regions is a gift of nature like none other.
Often described as a ‘kalpavriksha’ or a wish-fulling tree, every part of it, from the fruit and leaves to the husk and shell of the nut, is capable of providing sustenance to humans in one way or another. And that is exactly what the coconut has been doing for thousands of years in India.
It is no wonder then that the coconut occupies a central place in Indian culture, especially in Hinduism where many rituals and poojas are incomplete without the presence of the dried coconut, whole or broken.
But perhaps just as important is its place in India’s agri-economy.
Coconut growing and allied industries provide food and livelihood security to over 12 million Indians. To put it simply, India is the world’s Coconut Central. There is none to beat India when it comes to the production of coconuts. In 2021-2022, it produced a total of 19,247 millions nuts or roughly 31% of the world’s coconuts.
Its productivity too is among the highest in the world at 9,123 nuts per hectare, bettering both Indonesia and the Philippines, the two other top coconut growing countries. In India, three states, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, alone produce over 80 percent of the output.
Coconut is consumed in many forms. The tender, green coconut is much sought after for its refreshing and nutritious water and its sweet and soft flesh. The ripe coconut when grated and ground is the mainstay of cuisines from the South, especially Kerala where it is used widely in all kinds of preparations. Then there are various other forms in which the coconut finds its way into food such as coconut milk, desiccated coconut, coconut sugar, dried coconut or copra etc.
Other than its direct use in food, the coconut produced in India goes towards three major industries — copra production, coconut oil extraction and coir making. Coconut oil is extracted from copra and used in cooking as well as in cosmetics like soaps, shampoos and lotions.
Coconut husk is used for coir-making, which supports a large industry that makes various products such as mats, mattress, textiles, yarn and so on. Coconut shell is used in handicrafts and as a source of biofuel.
India also is also among the world’s top coconut exporters, sending out coconuts and other products derived from it to more than 140 countries. The export of Indian coconuts and coconut-related products is growing at a fast pace — exports grew at 41% over the previous year in 2021-22— earning India over Rs 3,236 crore.
The coconut true to its reputation will continue to remain a source of livelihood and sustenance to many in the years to come as well.
‘There is no onion deficiency in India, only a lack of vision and management’
Posted on May 2nd, 2023
Onion is India’s most politically sensitive crop. Any increase in its retail price is a nightmare for politicians. Why is that so? India, an onion surplus nation, cannot make money in exports even when there is a global shortage. The Plate’s TR Vivek spoke to Nanasaheb Patil who perhaps knows more about onions than anyone else. He is an onion farmer himself and a member of the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee or APMC at what is known as Asia’s biggest onion market at Lasalgaon in Maharashtra’s Nashik district.
Q1
Give us a sense of India’s onion production cycle.
Onion is a commodity that is part of India’s daily diet. The first crop of fresh onions arrive in August from Karnataka, starting from Bangalore and Hubli. The supply then shifts gradually north: Kolhapur in September, Nashik by October. This lasts till January or February end. The August-to-February cycle brings red onions that are more perishable. They have shelf life of 2-3 weeks. From late February and early March, the pink onions from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan start coming in. Fresh arrival lasts until April end. After April, there is no new production until August. The pink onions can be stored for six months. But it depends on climatic conditions. Our traditional storage methods cannot prevent rotting of onions due to high levels of humidity. Supply is maintained during the next four months by storing the March-April pink onion crop.
Q2
What is the demand and supply situation of onions? How much do we produce and what is our consumption?
Our total production is 30 million tonnes per year. Our domestic need is about 15 million tonnes. We process a small quantity into paste and powder and export 1.5 million tonnes. Where does the rest of it go? There is considerable loss since onion is a perishable commodity. Losses are anywhere between 15% and 40%.
There is no shortage of onions, but India lacks a proper management system. Since this is a very climate sensitive crop, average productivity goes up significantly when the climate is good and it is not even 10 per cent of the average when the climate is poor. Due to this, the onion trade sees many ups and downs.
Moreover, the government’s export policy is also not stable. We need ambassadors at our foreign embassies who can speak on behalf of Indian agriculture to other countries. This has become necessary since our production has gone up significantly. We grow a surplus of cereals as well as horticultural crops. There are many other commodities that can be exported, but it needs proper management and vision so that Indian agriculture can get a better market globally.
Q3
What is the problem with our onion export policy? Why does the government ban exports at the slightest hint of a retail price increase? Isn’t that unfair to onion farmers?
There is a psychological factor at work in onion pricing. We are scared of shortage. When the retail prices of onions increase and the media makes it a big issue, the government feels pressured to act. Export is immediately banned. The media, government and consumers need to understand why prices go up. When there is less production of onions due to poor weather conditions prices are bound to go up. People have to understand this. This is accepted about other commodities, why not in the case of onions? I frankly don’t know.
Q4
What is the impact of these knee-jerk export bans? Does India lose credibility in the international markets because of these export bans?
In a global world, countries are free to import commodities from any that can assure them of good quality and regular supply. We have no policy to help our exporters. Our governments are only concerned that there should be no backlash from domestic consumers. Therefore their knee-jerk actions damage our export policies and the overall conditions for exports.
Q5
Let’s say a farmer sells his onions in Lasalgaon at Rs 15 a kilo. By the time it reaches Delhi or Chennai, what is the retail price?
There are many factors that decide the price of onions by the time it reaches the consumer. For example, loading, labour, sorting, packing and transportation. There is a commission for all these activities. Costs increase at each stage of the handling process. All this means that there is a four-fold price increase in the final price of onions from the time the farmer sells his crop.
India No.1: Turmeric, the golden allrounder spice
Posted on May 2nd, 2023
Turmeric or haldi is a hard to beat multi-tasker in Indian homes. It is used extensively in Indian cooking; is an essential ingredient in home remedies for colds, coughs and cuts; is beneficial in skincare and a staple of many Hindu religious ceremonies. Poojas and special occasions, especially marriages, are incomplete without this ‘auspicious’ yellow root, its powder and paste.
Given how integral turmeric is to Indian life, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that India is the world’s No.1 producer, consumer and exporter of the spice. India produces 80% of all turmeric grown in the world, much of it for domestic consumption.
Curcuma longa, as turmeric known botanically, is native to the South Asian region, perhaps even India. It finds mentions in the Vedas as well as in old Tamil literature. Its use dates back 4,000 years.
The yellow in turmeric comes from curcumin, a chemical compound that is supposed to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Although many experts agree on turmeric’s supportive role in the treatment of conditions such as arthritis and mood disorders, large scientific studies of turmeric’s medical benefits aren’t available yet.
Ayurveda, for its part, accords it an important place in the treatment of many ailments, especially in boosting overall health. And it is as an immunity booster that turmeric has today found popularity in many parts of the world, especially during the COVID 19 pandemic. In the health food circuit, ’Turmeric lattes’, as haldi ka doodh is referred to now, are all the rage.
Indian production has kept pace with the increase in demand for turmeric. There has been a steady increase in acreage, up from 231,637 hectares in 2017-2018 to 349,642 hectares in 2021-22. Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka are the top turmeric producers.
Lakadong turmeric from Meghalaya is considered the best turmeric in the world with the highest curcumin content of over 7%. In 2021-22, India produced around 1.33 million tons of turmeric, up from 0.86 million tons in 2017-2018.
Indian turmeric exports too have been growing. The country’s exports grew a whopping 42% in the first six months of 2020-21 alone. Exports for 2021-22 are at around 1.53 lakh tonnes up from 1.1 lakh tonnes in 2017-18. Turmeric ranks third after chilli and jeera when it comes to India’s spice exports.
India No.1: Mango country
Posted on April 13th, 2023
If there is one fruit that immediately comes to mind when we think of India, it is the mango. The botanical name for mango, mangifera indica, is a nod to its birthplace, the region around Myanmar and north eastern India where the fruit is supposed to have originated. Not just that, the word ‘mango’ is a derivative of the Tamil and Malayalam ‘mangai/manga’, adopted by Portuguese traders coming to India in the 15th Century for the spice trade.
Mangoes have been cultivated in India for over 4,000 years. It’s not surprising then that it’s far more than just a fruit in the Indian subcontinent. It is a part and parcel of life. Not just something to be eaten and relished alone, it has found its way into poetry and literature, religion and art, culture, and even pop culture!
Sweet connection
Mango leaves adorn the doorways of many Hindu homes and the shape of the mango has become integral to the Indian visual art lexicon. The shape of the mango can be found in sculpture, architecture and textiles. Just think of the quintessential paisley shape so commonly found on saree borders and other apparel.
Mango permeates all aspects of Indian life, not least of which is food itself. Mango-based recipes abound, whether sweet or savoury ranging from chutneys, pickles and relishes to halwas, barfis and aamras or juices. There are other foods where mango is used either as the souring agent (amchur) or the main ingredient (mango rice, mango pachadi etc.)
And yet, if you ask the average Indian what their most favourite way of eating mango is, chances are that you will hear that they love it just as it is. Ripe and ready to be devoured whole with the skin on or without it.
Great variety
Given this love affair with the mango, is it any surprise that India is the world’s number one producer of mango and also its top consumer? India grows about half of the world’s mangoes—it grew about 21 million tonnes in 2022. The biggest mango-growing states are Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. While India is home to a mind-boggling 1,000 varieties of the fruit both wild and cultivated, a few varieties dominate in the market.
There is the alphonso, which is considered the king of mangoes, and is among the most exported varieties. Other popular mango varieties are kesar, langra, chausa and dussheri. But this is a far from exhaustive list. There is a mango for each region in India and each could quite legitimately lay claim to being the best and tastiest.
Unrealised potential
Despite all the mango mania, India does not export a lot of the fruit. It exported just 28,000 tonnes of fresh mangoes in 2021-22. The Middle East accounts for most of these exports. But India could emerge as a big mango exporter to the European Union in the coming years according to a recent report of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.