442 KENDA CUNNINGHAM Figure 16.2 India’s national milk grid, 1993
Delhi
Calcutta Bombay
Madras
Regular supply Seasonal supply
0 Source: Atkins (1993).
500 km
Indian leaders recognized that simply dumping excess European milk onto India’s dairy market could discourage local milk production. Operation Flood thus stressed reliance on local production, procurement, marketing, and selling and used the commodities and proceeds to promote overall dairy development instead of dependence. The European surplus was used to create needed dairy supply and eliminate gaps in supply and demand. Once India’s production and processing reached a certain scale, Indian farmers had an incentive to produce more milk to sup- ply processing plants. Imported commodity aid was then phased out (Table 16.2). Although some observers claimed that the EEC surpluses offered a disincentive to Indian dairy producers and skewed the market (Doornbos and Gertsch 1994), the continued growth of Indian dairy production since Operation Flood seems to show