White Revolution

This white revolution or operation flood relates to the rapid development in milk production that took place in India after mid 1960's. This name is a variation of the name "Green Revolution" used earlier to describe rapid development in agricultural production in India. A name closely associated with White Revolution is that of Dr. Verghese Kurien. This is because the origins of White Revolution can be traced to the efforts of Dr. Kurien at Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Situated at Anand in Gujarat State. This organization is better known by the brand name of its product - Amul.

INTRODUCTION

Phase’s : 1,2,3Phase I (1970–1980) was financed by the sale of

skimmed milk powder and butter vv oil donated by the European Union (then the European Economic Community) through the World Food Programme. NDDB planned the programme and negotiated the details of EEC assistance.

During its first phase, Operation Flood linked 18 of India's premier milksheds with consumers in India's major metropolitan cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Thus establishing mother dairies in four metros.

The Operation Flood – 1 originally meant to be completed in 1975, actually spanned the period of about nine years from 1970–79, at a total cost of Rs.116 crores.

Phase : 2Operation Flood Phase II (1981–1985) increased the milksheds from 18 to 136; 290 urban markets expanded the outlets for milk. By the end of 1985, a self-sustaining system of 43,000 village cooperatives with 4,250,000 milk producers were covered. Domestic milk powder production increased from 22,000 tons in the pre-project year to 140,000 tons by 1989, all of the increase coming from dairies set up under Operation Flood. In this way EEC gifts and World Bank loan helped promote self-reliance. Direct marketing of milk by producers' cooperatives increased by several million litres a day.

Phase III (1985–1996) enabled dairy cooperatives to expand and strengthen the infrastructure required to procure and market increasing volumes of milk. Veterinary first-aid health care services, feed and artificial insemination services for cooperative members were extended, along with intensified member education. Operation Flood's Phase III consolidated India's dairy cooperative movement, adding 30,000 new dairy cooperatives to the 42,000 existing societies organized during Phase II. Milk-sheds peaked to 173 in 1988-89 with the numbers of women members and Women's Dairy Cooperative Societies increasing significantly. Phase III gave increased emphasis to research and development in animal health and animal nutrition. Innovations like vaccine for Theileriosis, bypassing protein feed and urea-molasses mineral blocks, all contributed to the enhanced productivity of milk producing animals.

Phase : 3

It’s Impact VS It’s CriticismIt’s Impact : This is a revolution like no other in the

world. Operation Flood or The White Revolution as it is known in India has over the past five decades produced a constantly increasing sustainable flood of milk in India. It was of high quality and available in most parts of both urban and rural India. It helped transform the lives of more than 13.4 million farmers and increasing, most of them poor. Of them, 3.7 million were women. It helped women empower themselves and their families. Today, the Dairy Cooperative Network includes 177 milk unions. It operates in over 346 districts covering around 1, 28,799 village level societies. Today, India is the world’s leading dairying nation. Its helps:- Increasing milk production ("a flood of milk") Augment rural incomes Fair prices for consumers Employment of people Increase of economy in the country

It’s criticism : Some critics of the project argue that the emphasis on imported breeds of cattle has been instrumental in the decimation of Indian breeds. Foreign breeds give higher yields, but require more feed and are not suited to Indian conditions. Critics also argue that the focus on the dairy sector during this period came at the expense of development, research, and extension work in other areas of Indian agriculture.