Challenges

Which is India’s No. 1 farm commodity? Wheat, rice, sugarcane, cotton or oilseeds? Well, none of them: The right answer is milk. In 2006-07, the country produced an estimated 100 million tonnes (mt) of milk. At an average farmgate price of Rs 10 per kg, this would have been worth Rs 100,000 crore, exceeding that of any other crop (see Table).

Moreover, the share of the ‘milk group’ in the total value of output from agriculture and livestock during 2004-05...