The "white revolution" also known as "operation flood" which was based on replication of Anand pattern which organised cooperatives of milk producers into a nationwide milk grid.
The roots lies before independence when the peasants in kheda dist of Gujarat organised them into a cooperative union to strike against Bombay govt and forced them to buy milk directly from their union on suggestion of Morarji Desai and Sardar Patel.Later these farmers registered themselves in Anand, Gujarat in Dec, 1946.Tribhuvandas Patel, convinced the farmers to form milk cooperatives, later became its chairman and remained so for 25 years.Dr. Verghese Kurien was CEO of this Union from 1950 to 1973.And in 1955 this union choose Amul as brand name for its products.
Understanding the importance of cooperation PM Lal Bahadur Shastri wrote to all the states for setting up such cooperatives similar to Anand pattern.For replication of such cooperatives at pan India level, NDDB(National Dairy Development Board) was created in 1965 under chairmanship of Dr. Vergese Kurien and also was a founding member.The mission was started with name "Operation flood" and implementation was done under three phases.
Phase1: (1970–1980) was financed by the sale of skimmed milk powder and butter oil donated by the European Economic Forum through the World Food Program. NDDB has planned the program and started with formation of 18 initial grids linked to four metropolitan cities.The cooperatives role is to procure, processing and marketing of the milk and derived products and their distribution to retailers. Under the program dairy centres are created which procure the milk at morning & at evening two times a day and provides income to farmers in the end of the month.
Phase 2: (1981–1985) increased the milk-sheds from 18 to 136; urban markets expanded the outlets for milk to 290. By the end of 1985, a self-sustaining system of 43,000 village cooperatives with 4,250,000 milk producers were covered.
Phase 3: (1985–1996) In this phase the focus thirst is on expansion and strengthening of cooperatives through infrastructural developments for procurement and processing.Veterinary health services, feed and artificial insemination services for cooperative members were extended, along with timely technical training of the farmers.
The success is not only in terms of self sufficiency but it has also strengthened the socio- economic condition of the farming community by providing a year round source of income on monthly basis(from 10 to 45% of total income).
The success in terms of production can be judged as, during 1947 milk production was 17MT which is now increased to 187.7MT in 2018 gaining eleven times increase in seven decades.
The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has estimated the demand for milk is likely to reach 180 million tonnes by 2022.But India has achieved this milestone four year ahead.(India: Increasing dairy demand and challenges in dairy sector, Meeta Punjabi)
"Operation Flood can be viewed as a twenty year experiment confirming the Rural Development Vision" ( World Bank Report 1997)
References: Wikipedia
https://www.nddb.coop
https://www.data.gov.in
https://www.drkurien.com
https://www.fao.org
https://www.iasmania.com
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