The problem is easier to see in countries which don't even try to hide it.

Why milk adulteration?

Stiff competition, low output to blame

by Gurbhagwant Singh Kahlon

THE adulteration of milk in India has been going on for years, presumably in connivance with officials and politicians. Not much should be expected from the administration as those at the helm are insensitive to even such developments as affect the people’s lives.

Accordingly, along with a symptomatic treatment of the disease, there is a need to highlight the causes responsible for this deadly activity.

In Punjab buffaloes were regarded as the milch animals and cows were mostly kept for raising bullocks. Due to mechanisation of major farming operations, bullocks are no longer in demand. Majority of the enlightened farmers have lost interest in milch animals as they find growing wheat and rice more paying and less laborious than keeping buffaloes for milk.

As a result, milk production has gradually passed into the hands of landless and marginal farmers. This class is the poorest of the rural poor without any resources of their own. They usually keep one or two buffaloes of low genetic potential and maintain these on crop residues under unhygienic and semi-starved conditions.

Last year, they sold to Milkfed on an average 2.2 litres of milk per family per day, worth Rs. 550 per month, as gross income and not net income. These producers, in spite of losses, sell their milk under distress because of economic pressure and no other sources of income. They are in the clutches of village money-lenders from whom they keep on borrowing to offset their old debts.

More than 85 per cent of the milk being marketed for sale is from buffaloes. Almost 80 per cent of these calve between July and October. With the onset of summer these buffaloes are in late lactation, and either dry up or their milk yield decreases considerably.

On the other hand, the demand for milk increases manifold, causing a gap between milk production and its demand.

Milk is produced and sold in droplets. The time taken for its collection in villages becomes very long. Due to heat and humidity there is rapid bacterial growth which curdles milk.

Therefore, all sorts of preservatives are being added at all levels extensively to increase its shelf life. Hardly any milk reaches the consumers, free from injurious preservatives.

There is cut-throat competition during summer among cooperative and private sector milk plants, majority of which are incurring heavy losses, while “dhojis”, starve for milk, struggling for their survival and existence.

It is during this period that a parallel economy of adulterated milk and spurious milk products flourishes. With the onset of winter, milk production increases and intensity of the malady subsides to reappear again in the next summer in an acute form.

The solution lies in decreasing the number of buffaloes from 340 to 200 per village and increasing the number of high productivity cross-bred cows to 200 from 100, and instead of freezing these milk producers in these wretched conditions to exploit their grinding poverty as a vote-bank, lift them by providing better avenues for a fuller and richer life.

There is no organisation legally obliged to provide help in enhancing milk production. There are no regulatory measures for its purchase and sale. These are some of the factors responsible for the prevailing anarchy.

To meet the challenges thrown by the Green Revolution in Punjab it was decided in 1997 to develop scientific dairy farming to compete with cash and commercial crops.

It was further decided to induct the packages of innovative Israeli dairy farming technologies and systems in Punjab’s dairy sector because Israel has even harsher summer than Punjab, besides severe land and water constraints.

Three departments hold the keys for increasing milk production, which dilutes their responsibility and creates inter-departmental jealousies. Therefore, the Punjab Dairy Board was set up with the Chief Minister as its Chairman for taking expeditious decisions and their implementation as an autonomous institution under an act of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in October, 2000.

Unfortunately, it was diluted and distorted at every stage and ultimately, by an executive order, illegally downgraded to become a mere appendage attached to the administrative secretary.

Immediately after receiving the Israeli recommendations two multifarm units were started on panchayat lands at Kaljharani and Padhri Kalan villages. Surprisingly, without involving Israeli experts these were abandoned halfway after incurring a huge expenditure of over Rs 8 crore by the previous government itself.

There is a need to complete at least these two units by implementing the Israeli package of technologies for practical demonstration and education for all those interested in scientific dairy farming.

The dairy industry in the state is in a deplorable situation, and demands urgent attention of the planners. This is necessary not only to ensure adequate supply of milk, but also for decent employment to the rural youth.

Any programme in this regard must include setting of economic units with 20 or more high-yielding, cross-bred cows, kept under a favourable production environment in terms of proper housing and arrangements for countering heat stress, ensuring nutritious feeding and scientific management. Continuous upgradation of animals through insemination with high quality semen should be an essential part of the programme.

The two pilot projects referred above were intended to provide a model for the rest of the villages. It is still not too late to revive these projects which will yield valuable experience and lessons for large-scale adoption. Abandoning them after spending Rs 8 crore would only demonstrate thoughtlessness and a flagrant lack of concern for the dairy industry and poor Punjab farmers.

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The writer is a former Milk Commissioner of Punjab