India plans ‘milk grid’ on the lines of the historic ‘white revolution’ of 70s.

The Indian government is planning to link the countries with superfluous milk the deficit ones to fulfill every South Asian countries’ milk demands. A plan to replicate the success of ‘white revolution’ of 1970s has already been chalked out, and here is how the government would do it.

The government would form a ‘milk grid’ or ‘white grid’ in the South Asian region, officials aware of the event informed business daily Economic Times.

As per the report, New Delhi will also push for tariff reduction to less than 5% under the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement to facilitate the grid.

"Many of our neighbours are importing a lot of milk powder. We are suggesting that just like the energy grid, let there be a milk grid to facilitate liquid milk trade between these countries so that the dairy farmers of these countries benefit instead of the countries outside the region, sending milk powder," said a commerce department official.

Along with the dairy farmers, the move is expected to benefit South Asian Association of Regional Corporation (SAARC) countries, which import milk from other countries to meet their demand. SAARC includes India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Maldives, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.

A government official, on condition of anonymity informed that the idea was discussed with Bangladesh during the bilateral talks a few months ago.

"Bangladesh has agreed to do some amount of work for free movement of milk. Since the per capita consumption of milk in South Asia is much less compared to other parts of the world, this is one way to grow the market and create income for dairy farmers," said the official.

India's exports to SAARC nations registered 17.09% growth in 2014-15 at $20.4 billion. Not just this, but India is also the world's top milk producer with a global share of about 18%. However, while the milk demand has been rising by 6-8% per annum in India, the supply is growing by just 4-5% per annum.
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