Milk Marketing in North East India: Experiences from Assam

Abstract

Dairying in India is growing fast but faces problems of high input and low output prices leading to lower profitability. Due to globalization and the impact of world milk price changes, dairy farmers need to find ways of reducing costs and increasing returns in order to be more competitive. The study has addressed the issues associated with the alternative milk market chains and their implications on small dairy farmers. It is observed that modern milk market chains especially the milk co-operatives have grown significantly across the country. The study has shown that in spite of growing presence of modern milk supply chains, the traditional milk supply is still dominant. The empirical evidence does not appear to support the perceptions of exploitative nature of the traditional milk market agents. The traditional milk processing seems to offer good opportunities for the small and resource poor milk producers and traders to enhance their income. The traditional milk sector should be addressed in a constructive manner and the policies should be evolved which would allow informal players improve their performance including quality control and their integration with the emerging modern milk supply chains. A vibrant dairy sector, recognized for its role as a sustainable ‘milky route' to food / livelihood security, better human health and efficient enterprise growth for inclusive development. The results of the study indicate that 80 percent of the milk produced by the rural producer of un organized sector and  the remaining 20 per cent is handled by an organized sector.