India's White Revolution: Operation Flood, Food Aid and Development (Library of Development Studies)

324 Pages·2010·4.57 MB·English

by  Bruce A. Scholten

Bruce A. Scholten is Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of
Geography, Durham University. He has written on agricultural policy for a
variety of international publications and his current research focus is the
political economy of food. He grew up on a dairy farm near Lynden,
Washington, USA.
This is an extremely well-documented and innovative analysis of the dairy
cooperative initiative in India and its impact on small producers. Bruce A.
Scholten provides a critical understanding of the role of global-local
interaction in the growth and development of this sector and the resultant
contradictions. An essential reading for researchers working on India's
contemporary development scenario.
Swapna Banerjee-Guha, Tata Institute of Social Science Mumbai,
and author of Spatial Dynamics of International Capital

This is a fascinating and important book. Its account of Operation Flood
and subsequent developments provides an important basis for
understanding the modernisation of Indian agriculture - still a vital part of
the country's ever-growing economy - and yields insights into India's
relationships with its former aid donors and now trading partners. Bruce
A. Scholten's analysis of the politics of dairying in India also tells us a great
deal about centre vs. state politics and the problems of steering such a vast
and diverse economy into the global era of the twenty-first century.
Peter J. Atkins, Professor of Geography, Durham University, and
co-author of Food in Society

This book is worth a serious look. Most publications on Operation Flood
focus on minutiae, but India's White Revolution takes long-term data to show
the national-scale success of cooperative dairying in India. After finishing
his initial academic research on Operation Flood, Bruce A. Scholten
visited Anand. He understood that European dairy gifts could have been a
Trojan Horse to neo-colonial dependence. This book shows how farmers
in the Anand Pattern monetised EEC commodities to improve India's
food security. Now that the World Bank plans to replicate India's success
in Africa, the world should understand how and why it worked. The book
recounts the Jha Committee Report of 1984, which stressed the
importance of price incentives to stimulate village milk production to
multiply consumption in a growing population. I dreamed of a country
where city people enjoy affordable dairy products, while farm families earn
income, education and health benefits by producing that milk. Part of the
dream has been fulfilled and the dairy revolution could be fully won,
wherever the principles of cooperative farming are applied.
Verghese Kurien, Chair (retd) National Dairy Development Board,
winner 1989 World Food Prize, and author of I Too Had a Dream
INDIA’S
WHITE REVOLUTION
Operation Flood, Food Aid
and Development
Bruce A. Scholten
TAURIS ACADEMIC STUDIES
an imprint of
I.B.Tauris Publishers
LONDON • NEW YORK
Untitled-1 1 1/14/10 8:39 PM
Published in 2010 by Tauris Academic Studies
An imprint of I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com

Distributed in the United States and Canada exclusively by Palgrave
Macmillan, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010

Copyright © 2010 Bruce A. Scholten

The right of Bruce A. Scholten to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patent Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or
any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.

Library of Development Studies 1

ISBN 978 1 84885 176 4

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress catalog card: available

Printed and bound in India by Thomson Press (India)
Camera-ready copy edited and supplied by the author.
CONTENTS

Contents v
List of Illustrations: Charts, Maps, Tables, Photos vii
Glossary and Abbreviations ix
Acknowledgements xi
Preface xiii

1 After the Deluge: 1
Why Operation Flood requires a summing up

2 Recurring Depression? 33
Free trade in goods, services and capital too?

3 Mercantilism to WTO: 64
Why rich & poor drop protection for tariffication

4 Food & Dairy Aid: 122
Post-war effects on poverty & development

5 Data on India & Comparators: 145
Beyond expectations 1960s ~ 1990s

6 Three Phases of Flood: 185
OF-I, OF-II, OF-III win the White Revolution

Photos 143
Notes 257
Bibliography 287
Index 302

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Charts
Chart 3.1. LDCs outpaced by ICs in world ag products trade 103
Chart 5.1. World Milk Production & Population 1961-90 (log) 155
Chart 5.2. Imports Selected Third World Milk (ex. Butter) 1961-89 156
Chart 5.3. Imports World Milk (ex. Butter) 1961-89 157
Chart 5.4. Continents Milk 1961, 1970, 1980, 1990 (pies/stats) 166
Chart 5.5. DC/LD Milk 1961, 1970, 1980, 1990 (pies/stats) 167
Chart 5.6. World Milk (ex. But.) Intake 1961-89 (cont/stats) 168
Chart 5.7. Select LDC, LLDC, LIFD Milk (ex. B.) In. 1961-89 169
Chart 5.8. Selected DC, LDC, LIFD, Butter & Ghee Int. 1961-89 170
Chart 6.1. EEC dairy aid to India dwindles 248

Maps
Map 5.1. Butter & Ghee pc Cons. exp. gr. 1961-92 173
Map 5.2. Butter & Ghee kgs. pc Intake 1961 174
Map 5.3. Butter & Ghee kgs. pc Intake 1992 175
Map 5.4. Milk ex. Butter pc Cons. exp.gr. 1961-92 176
Map 5.5. Milk ex. Butter kgs. pc Intake 1961 177
Map 5.6. Milk ex. Butter kgs. pc Intake 1989 178
Map 6.1. National Milk Grid 1988 198
Map 6.2. National Milk Grid 1990-91 199
Map 6.3 Final form of Anand Pattern in NMGS 200

Tables
Table 3.1 GATT-1947 to WTO-1994 92
Table 3.2. Indian & Nigerian dairy & cereals imports: 1961-92 100
Table 3.3. Anderson & Tyers on IC, Eastbloc & LDC exports 103
Table 3.4. Agrostat supports Anderson & Tyers on IC/LDC trade 104
Table 3.5. Agrostat shows ICs outpacing LDCs in food trade 105
Table 3.6. Three Scenarios for Liberalisation Effects on LDCs 112
Table 3.7. Motivations: factors in expansion of int'l dairy trade & aid 120
Table 3.8. Constraints: potential limit on int'l dairy aid & trade 121
Table 4.1. A Brief History of the PL 480 era 131
Table 4.2. EEC dairy aid commitm' & deliveries to India: 1978-83 139
Table 4.3a. Main cereal food aid recipients pc 1988-97 141
Table 4.3b. Major cereal aid recipients by total volume 1970-97 141
Table 4.3c. Landmarks in food aid & development 142
viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Table 5.1. FAO Milk Production est. forecast (1998) 158
Table 5.2. OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2005-14 183
Table 5.3. FAOSTAT 2007 Total Milk 1995 & 2007 184
Table 6.1. Agrostat/FAO data shows milk rises in OF 201
Table 6.2. Agrostat FAO: India: non-cereal aid: 1977-88 206
Table 6.3. India's positive trends coincide with the OF era 228
Table 6.4. EEC dairy aid to India dwindles 248

Photos
Photo 1. Old & young cows & herders on Anand-Ahmedabad road xi
Photo 2. Dr. Verghese Kurien in his office at Anand 32
Photo 3. Cattle at dusk near Anand 143
Photo 4. Dr. Verghese Kurien interviewed by the author 143
Photo 5. Mother Dairy Gandhinagar at Ahmedabad 143
Photo 6. Technicians in Vidya cheese plant in Anand 144
Photo 7. Amul, the brand of GCMMF cooperative 144
Photo 8. Amul range incl. butter, infant milk substitute & cheese 144
Photo 9. Dr. Kurien presents book to President Kalam 144
GLOSSARY & ABBREVIATIONS

Additionality: use of food aid to provide additional consumption for people
whose 'incomes are too low for them to buy sufficient food'.1
AI: artificial insemination of dairy cows or other animals.
BO: butter oil; accompanied SMP as dairy aid from the EEC to India.
BST: (bovine somatotropin) natural hormone stimulating milk production;
genetically engineered as rBST or rBGH (bovine growth hormone).
Bt: biotechnology.
CAP: Common Agricultural Policy (of the EU aka EC or EEC or
Common Market).
CFA: Committee on Food Aid Policies and Programmes; oversees WFP.
CUP: Cambrigge University Press.
DC: developed country. This book alternates the older acronym IC
(industrialised country) with DC to denote rich countries with
advanced service sectors.
Dairist: person engaged in dairying.
Dudhia: petty dairy marketeer or milk vendor.
EEC: European Economic Community. This book alternates EEC with
the European Communities (EC) est. in 1957 Treaty of Rome; called
European Union (EU) in 1992 Maastricht Treaty.
FAO: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN.
FFW: food-for-work, i.e. food aid as partial payment, e.g. in road-building.
GATT: General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade; followed by WTO 1995.
GCMMF: Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation.
GE/GM: genetically engineered/genetically modified.
GOI: Government of India.
IC: industrialised or developed country (DC). ICs comprise 'The North'.
IDC: Indian Dairy Corporation.
IFAD: International Fund for Agricultural Development (UN).
IMF: International Monetary Fund.
IFPRI: International Food Policy Research Institute.
ISO 9000 series: benchmark standards est. with Codex Alimentarius.
LDC: unless specified, used collectively in here for poor countries,
including less developed countries (LDCs), low-income-food-deficit
countries (LIFD), and what formerly were termed least-developed
countries (LLDCs). LDCs are sometimes called the Third World or the
Global South. (In 1991 the UN redefined 'least developed countries' or
LDCs as 'low-income countries that are suffering from long-term