Milking the dairy industry
Reviewed by M.M. Goel

Globalization and Dairy Industry 
by Ramphul Ohlan Studium Press (India).
Pages 387

To reduce inequality in dairy products consumption across various income levels, .it hardly needs any justification the dairy industry plays a vital role in the global food and nutrition security with steadily growing production trends. An increasing demand worldwide is noticeably emerging and increasing the scope and intensity of the global dairy trade.

India is the world's largest producer of milk, contributing 17 per cent of the world's total milk production in 2012.

At the same time, the country is a very small player in the world dairy exports with just 0.39 percent of the value of world's total dairy exports.

The writer describes the global dairy industry trade and production dynamics for creating a framework to confront the imperatives of globalization . A comparative analysis of the development of the dairy industry in the world leading players in terms of production, processing and trade has been done along with the impact of the WTO on the growth of the world dairy production and trade. India has comparative advantage in milk production but not in dairy products due to lack of competency in milk product manufacturing. The performance of Indian dairy industry in terms of efficiency in processing and trade, we should increase investment in dairy manufacturing. To draw policy implications from the growth experiences of the world's largest dairy processor (USA), net exporter(New Zealand), and forerunner in milk production(China), we should implement appropriate measures to increase the milk yield per cow and to improve the quality of dairy products with efforts for the expansion of processing of milk, better transportation and port facilities in India. The book provides a comprehensive agenda for the dairy industry reforms in India for improving global marketing of Indian dairy products, improving productivity, efficiency and competitiveness and strengthening nutrition security. To capture the opportunity thrown up by faster growth in the world demand for dairy products, Indian dairy industry will need to leverage existing capabilities, commercial and innovation capacity development and investment in reducing (if not removing) specific competitive weaknesses. The Indian dairy industry has to harness the opportunities and meet the challenges brought by the trade liberalization, globalization and the WTO regime from both consumer and producer point of view.

To learn lessons from the growth experiences of USA, New Zealand and China with basic characteristics of their dairy industry ,the book includes investigation of the their performance and prospects for India. The factors affecting productivity, efficiency and competitiveness of Indian dairy industry are thoroughly analysed in the book along with evaluation of the government policies and programmes launched in India for the development of dairy industry. The readers can get an insight into threats of globalization for Indian dairy industry including dumping of cheap dairy products in Indian markets by developed countries, unethical practices by unscrupulous private dairy operators, inadequate public and private investment in modernizing the sector can impede its growth.

For benefiting from opening our dairy industry to the rest of the world as visualized in rising economic surroundings, the book argues for pursuing trade opportunities, dairy entrepreneurship development, export liberalization, improvement in scale of milk production and processing, linking urban consumer with rural milk producer, livestock health and disease control, strengthening infrastructure for clean milk production, improving quality of dairy products, adoption of crossbreed cows, easing up of supply bottlenecks in dairy industry, increase in producers' awareness to produce quality dairy products with reduced safety risks, yield improvement, increasing scale of milk production, strengthening milk collection, transportation and processing infrastructure, livestock insurance, establishment of milk chilling units, and introducing integrated food laws. For inclusive agricultural growth, these measures are necessary and sufficient and calls for continuous monitoring and evaluation proving concrete plan of action instead of lip service. The book is useful for analysing, interpreting and adopting strategies for the Indian dairy industry to face the challenge of globalisation by all stakeholders including consumers, producers, distributors, traders, policy makers and, above all, researchers.

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