Thursday, May 28, 2015

Indian Milk Prices:

Indian Milk Prices:
Procurement prices paid and Consumer prices charged by Dairy Industry
Current Situation:
Entire Indian Dairy Industry depends heavily on X-bred Cow and Buffalo Milk.
X-bred cows suffer immense heat stress during April to September the summer months in India. Their milk production drops by nearly 50%, during these summer months. Same is the case with Buffaloes. Every veterinarian knows that the buffaloes have been domesticated for milk onl;y in India, are basically water buffaloes and cannot stand heat of open sunshine. In olden days all buffaloes were driven in to rural water bodies and stayed in water all day to keep cool. All rural water bodies are now gradually vanishing. With the result that buffaloes cannot keep cool under water anymore and suffer enormous heat stress.  This causes a drop in buffalo milk production of nearly 50%, in addition buffaloes also suffer bad health, more infertility.
Dairy industry converts to SMD (Skimmed Powder Milk) the surplus milk produced during winter and supplies the reconstituted milk concoction from Powder milk to consumers during summer months.
This unnecessarily boosts the price of dairy milk being supplied to the consumers.
At this stage it must be brought to notice of all concerned that Indian breeds of Cows have evolved to suit the tropical Indian Climate and do not suffer any heat stress under Indian climate. The milk production of Indian breeds of cows practically remains unaffected by summer and winter months. Thus if our Dairy Industry learns to promote Indian breeds of Cows there will be no need to supply  any reconstituted from powder any white fluid concoction calling it milk and  misleading the Indian consumers, and that too at exorbitant prices.  In addition the milk of only Indian breeds of cows is of A2 type and promotes health of the community.
It is indeed shocking to learn that in Maharashtra Dairy Industry is paying as little as Rs 17/ liter to the farmer for what it sell for more than Rs 38/liter to the consumer. It is unimaginable how our system is allowing Dairy sector to get away with more than 120% mark up on farm price it pays.
Milk should be classified as an essential commodity for India. In our ancient tradition milk and milk products such as butter milk was made available to the most underprivileged poor of the society practically free. This is the target that we in India should work for.
World dairy industry is well aware that cost of milk production by pasture fed cow is 50% of the cost of milk produced by stall fed cows. In ancient times all cows in India were pasture fed and that made available to even the poorest.
In addition it also known that pasture fed cow are healthier and the milk produced by them is almost a medicine. It is rich in unsaturated fatty acids know as CLA. It is rich in minerals, Vitamins Showing and Carotenoids.
India needs more new pasture lands . It has been established by environmental biologist Allan Savory that cows convert desertified waste lands to green pastures and farm lands. Vedas say that any land becomes waste land if there are no cows on it. And that presence of cows converts all waste lands to fertile farm lands. Thus cow dung and urine play a much more significant and economically important role than milk of soil reclamation.
India has nearly 40% waste lands that can be converted to pasture lands by developing cow sanctuaries on the waste lands.
It is proposed that it should be made a part of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) of Indian Dairy Industry to submit specific targets to gradually develop pastures from waste lands by helping in establishment of cow sanctuaries and shift stall fed cow milk procurement to pasture fed cow milk procurement over a time.

Pasture fed Cow Milk will also not only make  milk healthier for the community  but will also insulate the milk prices to the consumer from inflationary increase in prices of cattle feeds for stall fed cows. 

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Sir your work is applaudable in this field and should be recognised by Government of India.
Sir I want to brought one thing in your knowledge that Maharshi dayanand gausamvardhan Kendra, gazipur, delhi, established under your guidance is also adopting practice of adding some powder milk type content daily in their morning distribution of cow milk which is around 37 ltr (generally in piece meals). The mixture is which they use to mix is taken out from cold storage. Sir i share my personal experience with you on this:-
Sir my father use to take milk from Gazipur kendra since last 8 years or so. After his demise in Sep 2014, i took over the charge. Since April i found that the milk distributed by the kendra is very colder which created a doubt in my mind. On asking the distributing person told me that the milking has been done since 4 am you came around 5:30 am, so by the time it becomes colder. But i could not digest the reason because the milk was too cool as if from refrigerator.
Due to doubt of mixing in milk, one day when i reach there at about 4:25 am i saw them mixing huge amount of milk which is cold in temperature in the main drum from where they are generally distributing milk. i asked the man distributing about the content mixed, he told me that he mixed milk which was taken out from cows in the morning. Then I asked why the temp is so cold. This time he gave another reply that they start milking very early, so they put the milk taken out early morning in the refrigerator so that earlier taken out milk does get spoil till the time of distribution. I took the milk but my doubt still not clear because why there is any need to put the milk in refriegerator when it is taken out from 4 am plus how it became so cold within 10 to 15 min. Why the taste and smell of the milk changes during summer. These days it is a regular problem, whenever somebody points out, the distributing man usually says ‘why don’t you bought a cow so that you can get warmer milk’. But there are still some persons/ VIPs to whom the distributing person giving milk directly from bucket which also makes us loose trust in the Gaushalla milk distribution system.
Sir, my mother is in last stages of Alzheimer disease she has to be taken care of 24 hours just like 6 month old baby. Ayurvedic doctor has told me that since my mother cannot take oral Ayurvedic medicine so he is insisting that we should feed her with pure Indian cow milk which is rich in many antibodies.
Sir, since you are founder of that Gaushala and they will listen to you, my request to you is to stream line the distribution system of that Gaushala so that we could get pure healthy milk of Desi Cow and if they are mixing something than let us know what they are mixing and why, so that, trust appear in the distribution system. Further, if the milk is less than they can reduce the quantities but they should distribute that milk which is pure, so that if any body taking milk as medicine may get the desire benefit and does not feel like cheated. Further earlier Card system was better because it will not allow a new person to take milk without permission of distributing authorities and gap takers/ increasing quantity takers can also be tapped. Further, no body should be give either directly from bucket or other drum in which milkman are puring milk despite having space in main drum on the instructions of distributing man.
I end up with saying that we as society be always be debtor and grateful for your contribution in this field.
With lots of regards

Rajeev Kakkar

Dr Waran said...

While I fully concur with Subodh about the medicinal properties that Indian cow milk has, the reality is that nearly 50% of milk in India cows from buffaloes. Hence, buffaloes cannot be wished away. Further, their milk is also A2 type, the same type that the Indian cows produce.

Yes, milk production in buffaloes suffers without wallowing facility. Hence, just the creation of this facility in villages can increase milk production at least by 10 - 20% without any change in feeding practices.

The culprit is the crossbred cows which produce A1 type milk, that needs to be culled by refocusing all our policies and interventions in improving yields from Indian cows and buffaloes.

Aadvik Kumar said...

It is really very helpful for us and I have gathered some important information from this blog.
Milk Home Delivery In Chennai

Dr Waran said...

There is incongruence between the heading and the matter.

A matter of concern.

Anyway, collecting, mainintaining and sharing of price information is a "public good" and the State Governments are consciously shirking this responsibility.