NEW DELHI: Which is India's No. 1 crop? Is it rice? Or wheat? Well, neither. The right answer happens to be milk. The country's milk production is estimated to have touched 100 million tonnes (mt) last year, which is higher than the estimated 92 mt for rice and 75 mt for wheat. In value terms, too, a kg of milk is worth more than what Indians pay for a kg of rice and wheat. But despite all this and the fact that India is today the world's largest milk producer, the dairy industry is not considered 'glamorous'. For policy makers, dairying is viewed as a 'subsidiary' activity.

This, when milk is one product that generates cash income to farmers almost on a daily basis, unlike sugarcane or wheat. Besides being a source of liquidity and insurance against crop failure, milk is the only crop where the farmer realizes 60-70 per cent of consumer price - against 20 per cent or so in fruits and vegetables. One reason for this 'image problem' suffered by milk has to do with the absence of proper databases with authentic information on the sector.

This is a gap that Dairy India 2007 (Sixth Edition) seeks to fill. It was released by Charusheela Sohoni, Secretary to Government of India, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, at a function in Krishi Bhawan in New Delhi, amidst a gathering of dairymen from the public, cooperative and private sectors.

A treasure trove of information, this 864-page publication offers the most comprehensive and up-to-date picture about the world's numero uno dairying nation. An invaluable Databank-cum-Management Guide-cum-Directory, it contains over 120 in-depth articles, 260 statistical tables and charts and reference details of 7,000 organizations including dairy plants and farms, equipment and consumable manufacturers, cattle feed and veterinary pharmaceutical manufacturers, chemicals and food additives, project consultants, breeding and fodder seed farms, analytical and disease-diagnostic laboratories, cooperative institutions and government agencies.

According to the data provided in Dairy India, private corporates will overtake cooperatives to emerge as dominant players in the country's dairy industry by the year 2011. Out of the 120 mt milk produced, the proportion retained for self-consumption will rise marginally to 48 per cent (58 mt) due to increased rural incomes and living standards.

What will change though is the profile of the 62 mt surplus, with the organized sector handling more milk (36 mt) than the unorganized players (26 mt). And within the organized sector, private dairies will handle two times more milk (24 mt) than cooperatives/government dairies (12 mt).

The present edition of Dairy India is the sixth, starting with the first one launched in 1983. Founded and conceived by the late PR Gupta, a development journalist and passionate chronicler of the industry, Dairy India has evolved into one of the world's most prestigious publications on dairying. Following his demise last year, it is now edited and published by his son, Sharad Gupta.