Milk is recognized as the most valuable and whole- some food for man, being nutritive as well as
a protective food. Throughout the world, there are more than 6 billion consumers of milk and milk
products, the majority of them are in developing countries. Over 750 million people live within dairy
farming households. World's dairy farms produced about 720 million tone of milk in 2010.India is the
world's largest producer and consumer of milk. New Zealand and Australia are the world's three largest
exporters of milk and milk products. China, Mexico and Japan are the world's largest importers of milk
and milk products. Milk is a key contributor to improving nutrition and food security particularly in
developing countries. Improvements in livestock, dairy technology and milk quality may offer the most
promise in reducing poverty and malnutrition in the world.
India is a largest milk producer in the world, in the 1968-69 milk production was only 21.2 million tones
it increase to 104.8 million tons in 2007-08. This of course must be attributed in great measure to
Operation Flood and the historic Co-operative movement. Operation flood was launched in 1970;
Operation Flood has helped dairy farmers direct their own development, placing control of the resources
they create in their own hands. A National Milk Grid links milk producers throughout India with
consumers in over 700 towns and cities, reducing seasonal and regional price variations while ensuring
that the producer gets a major share of the consumers' rupee. The main objectives of ‘Operation Flood’
were to increase the milk production and augment of rural income. India is developing very fast, and the
people in India have started living a better life and have started eating better food. From morning to
evening, you have milk based products such as milk with breakfast; curd, paneer, butter milk, lassi with
lunch; cheese in sandwich or burgers that one has for snacks; and again in the night milk and other milk
based products are consumed. If one calculates roughly, all this will account to 30-35 percent of your
daily grocery needs