Milk Disposal Pattern

Procurement covers collection of milk from rural producers or contractors, including setting up of chilling centres, provision of laboratory equipments and supplies, milking machines, cattle welfare including feed and fodder and transportation. What are the factors that affect milk procurement and or its constituents? It can be answered properly if we have some information about milk disposal pattern adopted by the milk producers in the area as they are the suppliers of milk from whom the milk is to be collected. In other words, it is concerned about knowing how much milk do the milk producers retain at home and how much do they sell after meeting their own requirements? To whom do they sell their milk and at what price? It is estimated that out of the total milk production, 40 per cent of the milk is retained at home either for self consumption and or conversion into few dairy products at household level in the rural areas. The rest 60 per cent of total production is marketed. Out of this marketed surplus, the share of traditional sector is about 78 per cent whereas the share of organized sector is 22 per cent. The quantity of milk which is surplus after meeting household requirements depends upon host of factors such as milk production per household per day, size and composition of the family, preferences of family members for milk and milk products, education level, economic conditions etc. Marketed surplus as a percentage of milk production may be as low as zero per cent i.e. no sale of milk at all and can go up to 100 per cent depending upon the above mentioned factors. Selling of milk provides cash to the farmers for meeting other needs. The milk producer may, in certain cases resort to distress sales, though he may not have any marketable surplus of milk. We have observed that many factors affect marketable surplus, thus all these factors directly or indirectly influence milk procurement.