The growth story of India's dairy sector is something out of a fairy tale. It transformed from a struggling industry into the world's largest milk producer in under a decade.
But this triumph also came with a price to pay, when it became the centre of a bitter trade dispute with none other than Donald Trump's United States.
India releases 'refreshing' dairy data
The sheer numbers from dairy data, released by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India, painted a rather 'refreshing' picture of the country's love for milk.
India's milk production surged by 63.56 per cent over the past decade, rising from 146.30 million tonnes in 2014-15 to 239.30 million tonnes in fiscal 2023-24. That's an annual growth rate of 5.7 per cent!
India now produces nearly a quarter of the world's milk supply, all the while employing more than 8 crore farmers directly.
But, here's the kicker: The recent collapse of India-US trade negotiations stems largely from Donald Trump's push to access India's massive dairy market—a demand that New Delhi flatly rejected on both economic and cultural grounds.
India does not need 'non-veg milk'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi telling Trump to take a hike was a no-brainer. A standard practice in American agriculture is to give cows animal-based feed, including blood meal, meat scraps, and poultry waste.
For most of the vegetarian belt of North India, this is "non-veg milk", especially in a country where milk is not just food but a sacred element used in daily religious rituals. US milk is an "unacceptable contamination".
The economic stakes are equally significant. India's dairy sector contributes 5 per cent to the national economy and forms the backbone of rural livelihoods for over 8 crore farming households.
Nearly 70 per cent of the dairy workforce consists of women, with about 48,000 women-led dairy cooperative societies operating at the village level.
Opening India's market to cheaper American imports could devastate this carefully built ecosystem. Almost 99 per cent of Indian farmers are small or marginal producers... they simply cannot compete with the heavily subsidised American agricultural giants that received more than $20 billion in US subsidies in 2022.
Economists estimate that unrestricted dairy imports could result in losses of close to Rs 1 lakh crore annually for domestic dairy producers.
And Modi stood his ground against Trump. He announced in August, "India will never compromise on the welfare of its farmers, dairy producers, and fishermen". This was not just political theatrics... he echoed genuine public sentiment.
India's refusal to budge on agricultural imports, along with other factors that Trump made up (like the convenient excuse of the import of Russian oil), led to the US slapping a total of 50 per cent tariffs on the nation's exports to America.
But India decided to stand firm on its stance.
Why India is confident in its dairy sector
Behind India's firm stance lies the transformative success of initiatives like the Rashtriya Gokul Mission. Bovine productivity jumped by 27.39 per cent between 2014 and 2022. According to the Animal Husbandry Department, that was the highest growth rate in the world.
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The cooperative dairy network, built on the Amul model, now includes 22 milk federations and 241 district unions covering 2.35 lakh villages with 1.72 crore members, the Centre said.
The government also doubled down on this success with White Revolution 2.0, launched in 2024, aiming to increase milk procurement by cooperatives to 1,007 lakh kg per day by 2028-29.
Recent budget allocations of Rs 3,400 crore for the revised Rashtriya Gokul Mission added further fuel to this raging and speeding machine.
For the US, the dairy sector is a mere facet in a trade dispute. For India, it's a clash between two fundamentally different approaches to agriculture and food sovereignty.
And that's how a humble glass of milk became an unlikely symbol of how cultural identity and economic sovereignty can trump pure market logic, even shaping world trade and foreign policy.
