Dairy cooperatives in India: Trends of its coverage and determinants

Dairy cooperatives is a promising rural producing organization which accounted for the milk revolution and improved livelihood of the rural population of India. However, its coverage has remain largely non-uniforni across the nation. Hence, this paper studied its coverage over last two decades (1999-19) in different parts of India. Growth analysis, principal component analysis based index calculation and multiple regression analysis aids in studying the variation in cooperative coverage across zones and states, and its nature and degree of relation with other internal and external factors. The results showed that dairy cooperatives has increased over time in all the states of India, especially in eastern states. Nonetheless, the slow or negative growth in milk procurement and membership over time concludes that milk procurement by cooperatives has not commensurate with milk production, specifically in east zone. Conversely, the slow growth in membership and high growth in milk procurement per member points towards mounting dairy commercialization, especially m western and southern states of the country. The study also suggests agricultural promotion and diversifying the services offered by cooperative at village level might help in increasing membership and milk procurement, simultaneously would also improve dairy farming in the region.