The Econometrics and the Importance of Milk in India and it National Importance

Pic- :  The National  Dairy Development Board 

The Econometrics and the Importance of Milk in India and it National Importance

The importance of “ milk” in India totally depends upon the importance that we give it to the cow and hence the cow’s get a kind of a national importance in our country. In this country unfortunately the cows have NOT gained and got that kind of an importance which they get it at countries in Europe and Africa, inspite of the fact that they kill the cows for eating their flesh of the same as beef.

The status of the cow thus gets a national importance and hence we discuss the importance of the status of the cows.

Cow’s Status: It Touches The National Economical Activities ::

The cow touches all our economic activities. This had been recognised even in ancient times. That is why sentimental, religious and great importance had been attached to ‘the cow’. Why Gandhiji took to the cow was for reasons deeper than this-To him ‘cow’ symbolized all animal wealth. The service of the cow was to bring him nearer to his goal of truth and non-violence. All this programme sprung from this root.. Thus a stress on cow means bringing back mankind to its former mooring.

Having in brief discussed all about the importance of the Cows, let us first discuss the various factors that makes the cow as an important animal and that obviously revolves around the milk.

“ MILK ” : The National “ HEALTH DRINK ”

Let us define and know what is milk. Well there can be no definite definition but still milk has a definition when it is related to the food and it’s value. It could be defined as follow-:

Milk. ... (Science: physiology)  It is awhite fluid secreted by the mammary glands of female mammals for the nourishment of their young, consisting of “minute globules of fat suspended” in a solution of casein, albumin, milk sugar, and inorganic salts.

The question that arises is-  IS THE MILK CLASSIFIED IN  “ SPECIES ” .Well the answer is debatable but the Scientists have gone to the extent of classifying it in the terms of species

Pic -:  The Species wise milk ::

Here in this figure one can make it out as to the milk that is derieved out of the cattles, the indigenous and the non-indigenous buffaloes,  the combined cattles etc.

The Cow :: It’s importance on our rural economy

Since the cow and it’s species have over the time have made significant importance to our national economy, obviously some lines also  have been added to the same and some importance also has gained the dominance of the cow, and those could be ascribed as under-:

The Cow Conference, held at Amritsar, in 1946 laid great stress on the place the cow holds in our rural economy. Apart from the programme for the preservation of the cow, as an animal, we have also to consider the steps to be taken to build up the economy symbolised by the cow.. Our villages are dependent on animals for the satisfactory working of their economy.

The Live Stock Survey ::
The opening of vanaspati ‘ Ghee ’ mills again cuts across this economy. It deprives people of a wholesome article of diet-vegetable oil and replaces it by indigestible hydrogenated oils and sets up unfair competition with the ‘tellis’.

Pic :: The Life Stock Survey ::

Now here in this picture one can easily make out the enhancement of the cattles in terms of their category  that has over the period of the time  shown an increment in the populous of the cows as compared to the other species which generates and yields the milk. I have also taken the account of the poultries and the pigs just to include the overall status of the meats that comes out of the same for consumption The pic clearly reflects the DIFFERENCES  in terms of the enhancement and the populous of the pigs clearly shows a marked fall .The overall difference of 4.60% states a poor “ cultivation ” of the populous enhancement of the same and this ought to be viewed right from now incase if we are to be sufficient of the milk and it’s items in the coming days as the population of India increases by about FIFTY percent in a time gap of 40 years , ie by about 10 percent per ten years . This is what the government of the day ought to think and rethink and start coming out with a national process of saving the cattles .

It is imperative that the Provincial Governments, that are now seriously thinking of rural development, should clear the issue and declare for a definite line of action. No haphazard attack on this problem will solve it.

Cow Protection

The Cow protection is very obvious. There has been a shortfall of the milk and it’s produce in the last decade.One of the reason is that the slaughters and the slaughter home have dwelled in a plenty

Over it the export market of the beef in this country also has risen and there are many an unauthorized  house which slaughts the cattles and export the meat itmes. Most of the slaught houses are not even registered with the Government that could be provinsional or even the national. Now these have made the life a hell for the cattles and obviously the slaughts of the cattles overall has reduced the quantum of the milk when it boils down to the production.

Pics - :: The Indian Milk Production  

We easily see that Jharkahnd from the period of 2012 to 2019 had and has shown a tremendous increase in the milk production when it comes to the states and it’s comparison

The percentage of the change for Jharkhand is 28% .It is because Jharkhand as a state has NEVER indulged in the process of the slaughters and the worst examples are Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh being skippered by Maharashtra which stands at ten percent in terms of fall of the milk production.

It is the Chief Minister of these states which has to take a cognizance of the same.

It is simple and it is straight.The cattles especially the cows and the buffaloes as well as it’s offsprings have to be saved from the wrath of the slaughter house.

There is a good deal of talk today about protecting the cow from the slaughter-house. It is good that people are becoming conscious of the great evil that indiscriminate slaughter of cattle has brought to our country. On the purely shortsighted view, the need for milk in a vegetarian country being important, it gives a premier place to the cow as a feeder of the nation. Apart from that it also provides the bullock which is the motive power with which the farmer produces from the land. The importance of this aspect of the question has been fully realised in conferring divinity on the cow and raising cow-slaughter to the level of a religious question. However, because of fanaticism, the very same zeal on the one side has created cussedness on the other side and we often find conflict between different sections of the population centered around cow slaughter. Therefore it now becomes necessary to ascertain exactly the place of the cow in India and give it a national approach.. Man recognises his economic dependence on the means of production. Just as an artisan depends on his tools, similarly the farmer depends on the cow and if we extend the economic sphere, we may say the cow, being the means of producing food, becomes the centre of the economic organisation of man, especially in an agricultural country like India.
Apart from this aspect, when we look upon the cow as the producer of the bullock, the importance of the cow is enhanced. She now represents the centre of our economy. Therefore, in a wider sense we may say that when we break through a cow-centered economy we are really causing cow slaughter, i.e. in other words when our actions are inimical to the existence of the cow-centered economy, we are not in the company of the protectors of the cow. This aspect of the question is much more vital to us than the mere slaughter of the four-legged and two-horned animal.
We wonder how many of our friends who stand up against cow slaughter can show their hands clean of bovine blood from this higher interpretation of cow protection. The ‘Cow’ like Khadi, is symbolic of a way of life. ‘Cow Slaughter,’ therefore, would signify making impossible that way of life. We hope that those who stand for cow protection will realise the extensiveness of the cause which they stand for, and will whole-heartedly support this wider application of the principle.

Comparism of the decade-:

This really serves as a very useful mean and a tool of the study. We also have to see beside the milk and the derivavtives that is produced by the milk, how is the other means that are excreated by the cows and the cattles do make anoverall impact in terms of the revenue that is generated and the contribution that it makes in the Gross Domestic Product and it’s overall standing when it comes to the revenues.

Pics-:: Comparism of the decade::

In this picture  which has been released by the INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND  when we see and compare the change in terms of the decade we take the TRI-DIMENSIONAL figures and the charts to compare the same.

There is not much that I can write as these are the charts as released by the IMF but it is quite evident that  China inspite of a nation that KILLS –AND-EATS the beef it still stands head above the other nation when it comes to make an earning from the milk and it’s derivatives

China every year makes about  EIGHT TRILLIONS of earnings from the same This is something which really POKES us to think that a country where the SLAUGHTS are the most for the cattles HOW DOES IT ATTAINS THAT KIND OF AN EARNING from the cows and the cattles that produces the milk and it’s derivavtives.

Then comes the US where again the SLAUGHTS are second to China but still it creates a revenue of about SIX TRILLIONS of Dollars per annum. The Wall Street Journal also depicts and restates that both US and China earn about TEN to TWELVE trillions of dollars per annum. We as a nation that WORSHIPS the cow will have to really BUCK-UP and PULL-THE-SOCKS when it comes to that.

It clearly  reveals that there is a vast and a HUGE market that exists at the world for the sale of the milk and the derivavtives that comes out of the same.With the COVID- 19 hitting the market and with everybody putting China off from their list and with the US completely being shattered in terms of everything that constitutes their economy- THERE IS A CLEAN GROUND FOR INDIA THAT IS LAID FOR THEM TO TAKE UP THAT MARKET  and now the time has come for india to rethink and rework on the same to make it’s presence felt in the area of DAIRY and it’s impact in the World market.

The Supply Of Milk In Our Country : Why It Suffers

The supply of milk in our country has suffered greatly because of the war. Great many animals of good extraction have been slaughtered to supply the military needs and others still are being destroyed by one or other requirements of the military. We have, therefore, to increase the milk supply of the country. For this it is necessary to increase both the number of milk yielding animals as well as improve the breed of out cattle. Up to now, in many places, the Government has been developing the breed with a view to supplying the needs of the military.

Here comes the importance of the demography and I shall illustrate it by placing the chart of the same.

Pics - : How Is The Demography

I have taken the demographical picture or the chart of the TWO WORLD’S LARGEST DEMOGRAPHY of India and China.  It is quite obvious from the figure that China over the years has been able to control it’s population by a definite national populous method whereas the Indian demography clearly illustrates that in comparison to China it has overflowed and overgrown.Now this makes it an interesting reading

Obviuosly  the kids and the newly born infants would be requiring more and more milk at the stages of their growth and any deficiency of the same would be a disaster for them as well as for the nation as these kids and infants are the future and the pillars of the nation

It is here that the importance of saving the lifes of the cattles, the milk and it’s derivavtives comes into the picture. This is where a NATIONAL PLANNING ought to be done in terms of breeding as well as saving the cattles.

Now the breeding of the bulls and the ox are the FIRST and the most MAJOR steps that ought to be taken into consideration for ultimately increasing the populous the the cows and the cattles that falls into it’s sector and category.

For this they have been breeding bull which would give large-sized bullocks for draught purposes. These large bullocks, however useful they may be to the military who count no cost, they are beyond the means of the millions of small farmers who cannot afford to feed these huge animals. The farmer needs compact and strong bullocks for his work. Now to increase the milk supply the Government has been providing stud bulls from cattle farms, which have been working for a different purpose, with the result that the milk yielding quality of the progeny in the countryside has been much decreased in favour of producing large bullocks.
Again the Milk Sub-Committee of the Policy Committee on Agriculture are recommending the establishment of milk collecting and processing centres and special cold storage and railway transport facilities.  

The NDDB here has played an important role but now it has to come forward in a big way to establish the milk collecting centre all over the country at the farthest places and take the responsibility iof transporting the milk to the place where they can use it for making and producing the necessary derivatives out of the same.

This may imply scouring the countryside for the benefit of the town. Many of the cities today depend on such milk, taken away from the mouths of children of the milk-producers. Any collection of milk must take care that the milk obtained is a definite surplus over and above the dietary needs of the producers and their families. Otherwise this programme will affect adversely the health of the people in the country.

Why Gandhiji fusses over the Cow?

An article by the author Bharatan Kumarappa is of so important that I felt it like to add it over here .

Without this and his piece of a brilliant words that he has described and ascribed to clearly bring out the NATIONAL IMPORTANCE of the cows, this article would not find itself of any value and any use.

This portion of the article WHY GANDHIJI FUSSES OVER THE COW is a complete write up by the author whose name I have proposed here and these are NEVER my words for the same.

Pics :: Live Stocks & Head Counts

The total number of cattle in the country is 192.49 million in 2019, showing an increase of 0.8% over the previous census. It includes 145.12 million female cattle (cows) which showed an increase of 18% compared to 2012

Having completed in very short but swet manner let me come back to the article and a few lines on and about Mahatma Gandhi’s FUSS over the cow and the lines that I write are as follow-:

Once Smt. Aruna Asaf Ali raised a question which no doubt evoked sympathy in the minds of many. It was as to why we should trouble ourselves about the cow, when we have enough problems to tackle relating to man. Gandhiji’s brief reply was that if he bothered about the cow, it was because he saw that many problems relating to man in our country could not be solved except with reference to the cow. This answer deserve to be expanded and explained, if we are gain an understanding of the issue involve.
India is an agricultural country, with about 300 millions of its population depending on agriculture for their livelihood. For them the cow is more than their right hand, since without the aid of bullocks which the cow provides, ploughing, irrigating, weeding, harvesting, threshing, carting and marketing will be next to impossible. Bullocks are necessary for carrying on village industries like oil-pressing, At present these animals, which provide the motive power in agriculture and village industries, are weak, starved and diseased. How can people in our villages become prosperous so long as they have to depend on such a feeble instrument for eking out a livelihood ? The bullock is the villager’s machine. If a man is struggling with an inefficient machine which requires repairing and overhauling, who would say, "Why bother with the machine ? Help the man".

To this our city-educated youth may reply- "If the bullock is inefficient, scrap it, and use the tractor and other modern devices." The only difficulty about accepting this advice is that it is impracticable under present conditions. It is of no use telling us what should be done at some future date. We have to face the problems of our people today, and suggest means of improving their condition under present circumstance and within the resources now available to them. Which villager can afford a tractor and other modern agricultural machinery ? The bulk of them can hardly obtain a meal a day. It is like asking a clerk earning Rs.25/- a month to go to his office in a Rolls Royce. Marvelous idea, only it is unworkable. But it may be thought that though the average cultivator in India cannot afford tractors, a Zamindar can, and the peasant can use the Zamindar’s tractors. This, however, would mean, so far as the peasant goes, a condition ten times worse than at present, for at least now he is to a limited extent independent to till the soil as best as he can. But if he has to do away with his bullocks and use the Zamindar’s tractor he can do so only by becoming even more dependent than at present on the Zamindar for his instruments of production, and this means for him a step nearer to slavery. If, on the other hand, it is thought that peasants can pool their financial resources and by modern agricultural machinery co-operatively and use them co-operatively, then the difficulty is that today the co-operative movement is not being run by the villagers themselves, and the people have neither the capacity nor only in regard to the needed capital, but also in order to pool their land resources together, for their land is at present in tiny fragments, which are far too small for a tractor. Modern agricultural machinery is useful where there are hundreds of acres to be cultivated at a stretch. The peasant has very often only one or two acres in his ownership or control. To pool all these fragments together and to work them co-operatively is beyond his powers today.
Even later, it may not be wise for him to adopt tractors and mechanical devices in agriculture. They are useful in countries with a small population and vast areas to be cultivated. The situation in India is just the reverse. If we adopt machines to replace human beings in agriculture, where shall our people go for employment ? As it is, large scale industries are not able to absorb more than about two million and people are therefore even more increasingly being driven to agriculture for a live hood.

The argument opens out to the states and the states .

Pic :: State that Stands up to Cow Slaughter

 “ There in the chart and in the picture one can visualize all about the policies of the states at India where they have implemented the provisions of the slaughters of the cows and the cattles .A very thorough study makes it possible for one to understand the intricacies of the cow slaughter as well as the cattle slaughter and the position where it stands “ .

Now coming back to the subject about the FUSS of Mr Gandhiji  and the views that he had it over the cows, and on it the various theories that had eveolved, I put it down here adding some lines from the books who did enhance Mr Gandhi’s views on the subject of the cows.

He and his views also brought in about some fundamentals and the start of the mechanization about the breedings of the cattles and the cows. It lays importance on the bonus and the drawbacks on the mechanization and I write it here to illustrate the same.
Besides, mechanization involves fuel, of which we have only a limited supply in our country.
Further, it is said that artificial, manures like Chemicals, which we shall have to resort to, if in the place of bullocks we took to tractors and other machinery, are definitely injurious to the soil. They stimulate the soil and make it produce much for the time being, but only to leave it in the end exhausted and impoverished. They are also said to cause disease in crops and in animals. This is the experience of Sir Albert Howard, formerly Economic Botanist to the Govt. of India. He is definitely of the opinion, elaborated in his book called As Agricultural Testament that the only manure which can permanently enrich the soil and help healthy growth in plants and animals is organic, i.e. the cattle dung and urine, human excreta, and waste vegetable matter. If this is so, then cattle will be required in agriculture, not only for labour but also for the valuable manure they provide.
For these reasons, then it would seem best for us not to be allured into following the way of mechanised agriculture but to fall back on the bullock for motive power. If we do so, the cow which provides the bullock must occupy a central place in our national economy.
Consider further, many of us, whether for religious other reasons, are vegetarians, and do not wish to be a party slaughter of animals for food. Being vegetarians, we require milk and milk products to supplement the deficiencies of an exclusively vegetarian diet. We must therefore have some animals which will provide us milk. What is better than the cow, the mother of the bullock which we need for our agriculture? If we look after it well, it will provide us milk for our sustenance and bullocks for doing our work.

Pics :: Trend In Annual Milk Production::

The figures really reflects the trend in the annual production of the milk to the year 2016

It reflects the grams per day for an average Indian that he could consume the milk is only 300 grams or 300 millilitres per day .This reflects a very poor figure as compared to other countries where in China a Chinese can consume about 750 milllitres at the minimum and the Europeans can consume  it to about a LITRE per day.
The chart clearly reflects that the percentage of the growth which was at about 7.35% in 1985-86 has now fallen to about 6.35% in 2016 and it is believed to be even less than 6% of now. This clearly is a sign that brings about FEAR and DESPAIR and it is on this factor that the life saving measures of ther cattles takes it importance . 

This is where the NATIONAL GOVERNMENT and the NATIONAL IMPORTANCE of the cow gains precedence and it is here that a NATIONAL POLICY for saving the cows and the cattles as well as the policy of enhancing the production of milk has to increase like anything. The importance of the cow here gains a precedence as compared to anything and anybody.

Instead of this, the modern tendency in India is to depend on the buffalo for milk. But the he-buffalo is comparatively useless for work in the fields. So it is slaughtered. Similarly, since the cow is wanted only for the sake of its bullocks, it is sent off to the slaughter-house no sooner then it has calved, and the calf has been weaned, for it is too expensive to feed the cow till its next calving. Thus under this method both the buffalo and the cow are slaughtered.
This can be avoided if we maintain only the cow, and obtain both our milk and our bullock from it. To do this will also be cheaper from the national view point, for we shall then have to maintain only one animal for both the purposes instead of two as at present.
Further, the bullock which we want from the cow will be stronger and of a better quality, for the cow will be better looked after and fed when we depend on it for milk.
Other reasons which may be given in favour of the cow for supply of milk as against the buffalo are(a) that cow’s milk is more conducive to health than buffalo’s as it has more vitamin B, and has in addition vitamin E which is absent in buffalo milk, (b) that the Carotene (vitamin A) value of cow’s ghee is ten times as high as that of buffalo ghee, (c) that the cow is less liable to disease than the buffalo, (d) that it matures a year earlier, (e) that its dry period, i.e. from the time it ceases to give milk to the time it calves again, is three times shorter than that of the buffalo, (f) that its milk yield is not affected adversely by heat and cold as the buffalo’s and (g) that the cow does not require as much grazing ground, feeding and water as the buffalo.

Pics:: Quantity Of Milk Produced

Here in the picture one can see the quantity of the milk produced and it’s price as against the quantity of the milk produced. One would be surprised to find all about India and it’s placement wherein in practicalities, the population of India and the milk that it requires should be as comparable to China. China in all practical purpose produces the milk in that quantities and sells in th most chealest price that the consumption is so huge in that country and that too in a very economical and affordable price that it gets the billings and the topmost honour in the matter of consumption of the milk .This makes and this  this should make the Indian counterpart to take a leaf out of the same and do more on the milk so that milk becomes the most selling commodity here at India..

NO DOUBT WE ARE AN UNDERNOURISHED NATION

Why is the condition such and why is that we inspite of being a COW WORSHIPPING nation have completely failed in competing with countries like China and the Europeans. The only ONE reason that I can put is ascribed here. The REASON is DETERIORATION
The deterioration in the cow and its bullock is precisely because we have departed from the old practice of looking to the cow as giver of plenty. Even with all its deterioration, the Indian cow, through centuries of careful breeding, is any day superior to its Western counterpart. The fat content of the milk of the Indian cow is rarely less than 4.5 per cent while British cows yield milk of 3.5 per cent fat content only. Besides, the Indian cow can live on lithe meager fodder locally available, can resist disease and withstand the tropical heat much better than the British cow. The solution therefore to the question of improving the present condition of our cattle is not to cross the local cow with foreign breeds which, as a matter of fact, has proved disastrous, for the mixed breeds cannot stand the poor feeding and the climate, nor can they provide us bullocks capable of doing hard work -but to restore the cow to the central place it once held, as the giver of milk and the mother of the bullock.
It is calculated that through its milk, bullocks, manure, hide and bone, the contribution of the cow to the wealth of India is over Rs. 1,000/- crores annually, an amount which no other industry in India except agriculture can be equal. Gandhiji has therefore established the Go Seva Sangh (association for looking after the cow ) to devote its attention on a countrywide scale to the improvement of the condition of cattle in India. Is Gandhiji wrong then to draw our attention to this most important national industry, and to show us the way to make it yield better results ?

Well if that is the main reson the other could be attributed to the fact that the SLAUGHTERS of the cattles in India has increased to about five times in the last decade.I would surprise a many but let me tell you all that on an average everyday about 8,00,000 cattles are slaughtered in India and it makes a figure of about 96,00,000 ie about a CRORE of them every year. This again needs a NATIONAL PLANNING and thinking in terms of HOW TO SAVE IT and IN WHAT A WAY TO SAVE IT.

That is it

Regards

Pics

Mr Shyamal Bhattacharjee, the author was born at West Chirimiri Colliery at District Surguja, Chattisgarh on July 6th 1959 He received his early education at Carmel Convent School Bishrampur and later at Christ Church Boys' Higher Secondary School at Jabalpur. He later joined Hislop College at Nagpur and completed his graduation in Science and he also added a degree in    B A thereafter. He joined the HITAVADA, a leading dailies of Central India at Nagpur as a      Sub-Editor ( Sports ) but gave up to complete his MBA in 1984 He thereafter added a Diploma In Export Management. He has authored THREE books namely Notable Quotes and Noble Thought published by Pustak Mahal in 2001 Indian Cricket : Faces That Changed It  published by Manas Publications in 2009 and Essential Of Office Management published by NBCA, Kolkatta  in 2012. He has a experience of about 35 years in Marketing 

 Signature Of Shyamal Bhattacharjee