WORLD'S LARGEST MILK PRODUCING COUNTRY

India is the world's largest milk producer with an annual output of over 100 million tons.
India, being the country with the largest vegetarian population, milk has a special role to play for its many nutritional advantages as well as providing supplementary income to some 70 million farmers in over 500,000 remote villages. Milk also finds its place in many relegious activities. Here milk remains as the number one commodity product by India pushing wheat and rice behind. Country’s output now covers 100 million tonnes and is valued at nearly two lakh crore rupees.

Operation Flood in India, a project of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was the world's biggest dairy development programme which made India, a milk-deficient nation, the largest milk producer in the world, surpassing the USA in 1998, with about 17 percent of global output in 2010–11, which in 30 years doubled the milk available per person, and which made dairy farming India’s largest self-sustainable rural employment generator.

The annual rate of growth in milk production in India is above 4 per cent, against the world's 1 per cent. This surge of growth can be accredited to the establishment of dairy cooperatives under the Operation Flood program. Growing in this astounding rate, India overtook the U.S. In 1998 as the world's largest milk producer. In United States, where the milk production is anticipated to grow only marginally at 71 million tonnes, occupied the top slot till 1997. In the year 1997, India's milk production was on par with the U.S. at 71 million tonnes. The world milk production in 1998 at 557 million tonnes would continue the steady progress in recent years.

However, the growth rate of both production and consumption is same at around four per cent level. According to dairy expert R S Khanna, the milk consumption is expected to grow at seven per cent by 2020. If there is little change in these rates, the domestic demand of milk may surpass the production.

In spite of being the world’s largest milk producer, India’s milk processing industry is not very large. Only 12% of milk is delivered to dairies as against the world average of 70%.