Is Dairy Farming in India Commercially Profitable?

The contribution of the livestock sector to India’s agricultural gross domestic product has been increasing since the 1970s. Dairying accounts for more than two-thirds of the value of total livestock output and there has been a consistent growth in milk production (Kumar et al 2018). 

In the 2017 article “Do Producers Gain From Selling Milk? An Economic Assessment of Dairy Farming in India,” Ghosh et al study the returns from commercial milk production in the northern and eastern regions of India to determine whether these returns are useful for planning strategies and policies for the dairy sector and poverty alleviation. M Dinesh Kumar and O P Singh criticise this study, stating that Ghosh et al’s analysis is neither useful for policymakers to frame policies for dairy farming, nor does it show the importance of the dairy sector in nutritional security of rural households. Nilabja Ghosh responds by saying that dairy economics is a diverse field and there is always scope for improvement.