Operation Flood
India is the largest milk producer in the world. It was set to produce over 133 million tonne milk during 2012- 2013.
The government have initiated a number of measures to increase the productivity of milch animals. It has resulted in an increase in the milk production significantly from the level of 102.6 million tonnes at the end of the tenth plan (2006 -2007) to 127.9 million tonnes at the end of the Eleventh plan (2011 -2012. The Annual Growth Rate of milk production was about 5% in 2011 -12 compared to 2010 -11.
The revolutionary growth in milk production in India is termed as the White Revolution. It was possible through the “Operation Flood”, which was the world’s biggest dairy development programme launched in the year 1970.
The Operation Flood is a project of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) launched to help farmers to manage their own development, placing control of the resources they create in their own hands. Dr. Varghese Kurian was the founder Chairman of the Board who applied his professional management skills to the programme of milk production by masses and by formation of co-operatives.
Today, Dr. Kurian is called as the Father of White Revolution.
The Silver Revolution
Poultry Development has shown steady progress in the country over the years.
The word Poultry relates to birds reared for the production of eggs and meat. The egg production in India was around 66.45 billion in 2011-12. It is about 5% over the previous year’s production of about 63.02 billion eggs. The poultry meat production is estimated to be about 2.47 million tonnes. The current per capita availability of eggs is around 55 eggs per year. The exports of poultry products was at around 457.82 crores in 2011-12.
Through the development of highly nutritive feed for poultry, and new technologies for their healthcare, India has achieved great success in the production of eggs. This revolutionary change is called as Silver Revolution.
The Central Poultry Development Organisation has been playing a pivotal role in the implementation of the policies of the Government with respect to poultry as a tool for alleviating nutritional hunger and empowering the resource-poor farmers, especially the women.
The mandate of the Central Poultry Development Organisation has been specifically revised, by restructuring all poultry units of this Department to focus on improved indigenous birds, which lay on an average 180-200 egg per annum.
The Central Poultry Development Organisations have been entrusted with the responsibility of producing excellent germplasm in the form of day-old chicks and hatching eggs of advanced varieties. Besides, these organisations are also playing a crucial role in analysing feed samples.
Besides above revolutions, there have been many other revolutions such as –
Blue Revolution: revolutionary change in fish production
Golden Revolution: revolutionary change in horticulture
Red Revolution: Revolutionary changes in the production of meat and tomatoes
Round Revolution: Revolutionary change in the production of potatoes
Silver fibre Revolution: Revolutionary change in the production of cotton
Golden Fibre Revolution: A revolutionary change in the production of jute fibre
