ABSTRACT
Operation flood (OF) is a major dairy development project whose aim is to provide sufficient cheap, pure milk to match the hitherto frustrated latent demand in India. Dairy products are highly valued by Indians but in the recent past supplies have been restricted and retail prices high. In 1970 OF was conceived with the aim of meeting the shortfall by importing skimmed milk powder (SMP) and butter oil (BO). The idea was to reconstitute the SMP, sell the milk to urban consumers, and then use the counterpart funds for building up a rural supply infrastructure of primary village co-operative societies, processing plant and transport facilities. There is no specialist dairy region in South Asia and, although milk is the second most valuable output of the sub-continents agriculture, it has hitherto been essentially a by-product of arable farming. Bullocks and buffaloes are the main energy source for ploughing and female bovines have been valued mainly for their male offspring.
