Between 1970 and 2009, India has overcome many infrastructural, market, and institutional challenges to transition from a dairy importing nation to the top producer in the world of both buffalo and goat milk, as well as the sixth largest producer of cow milk. In India, at least 100 million households are involved in farming and 70 million have dairy cattle. In India, dairy production is important for employment, income levels, and the nutritional quality of diets. Milk production in India is dominated by smallholder farmers including landless agricultural workers. For example, 80 percent of milk comes from farms with only two to five cows. A well-known smallholder dairy production initiative, Operation Flood, laid the foundation for a dairy cooperative movement that presently ensures returns on dairy investments to 13 million members. Operation Flood also advanced infrastructural improvements to enable the procurement, processing, marketing, and production of milk and to link India's major metropolitan cities with dairy cooperatives nationwide. This intervention transformed the policy environment, brought significant technological advancements into the rural milk sector, established many village cooperatives, and oriented the dairy industry toward markets.

Three fundamental issues have developed with the inception and implementation of Operation Flood. Is this program equitable for all parties concerned? Can this program be replicated in other settings? And, will this project be self-sustaining? In Dairy Aid and Development the authors address these questions and review the origins and impact of Operation Flood, basic policy choices, and analyze the rural impact. With its interdisciplinary perspective and emphases on long-term viability, replicability, and independence, Dairy Aid and Development examines this major organizational achievement and process of social and economic change. "A rich case study of internationally supported development programmes that could find a useful place in many postgraduate development courses, as well as being required reading for researchers interested in Indian development policy and food aid more generally." --Development and Change

The Book Appraises The Policy Behind `Operation Flood` Or The White Revolution-The Dairy Development Programme Launched In The 1970S In India. The Author Concludes That The High Cost Programme Does Not Suit India And The Less Experience Indigenous Alternatives Are Better Suited To Meet Indian Needs.

Humanity has made enormous progress in the past 50 years toward eliminating hunger and malnutrition. Some five billion people--more than 80 percent of the world's population--have enough food to live healthy, productive lives. Agricultural development has contributed significantly to these gains, while also fostering economic growth and poverty reduction in some of the world's poorest countries.

Portuguese edition (Melhor Saude em Africa: Experiencia e Ensinamentos Colhidos). Poor health in Sub-Saharan Africa has immense economic consequences. Besides the high mortality and disease rates and the pain and suffering it causes, poor health robs the continent of human capital, reduces returns to learning, impedes entrepreneurial activities, and restricts economic growth. This study argues that despite financial constraints, significant improvements are possible in many countries, as has been seen in Benin, Botswana, Kenya, Mauritius, and Zimbabwe. The book also presents positive ideas on how to make these improvements. Better Health in Africa documents lessons learned and best practices in four major areas. 1) African households and communities need the knowledge and resources to recognize and respond effectively to health problems. Threats to health should be made known and countered through public and private services. 2) Human and financial resources must be used more productively by reforming health care systems. Correcting sources of waste and inefficiency must take top priority. 3) Cost-effective packages of basic health services can do much to meet the needs of households and reduce the burden of disease. Networks of local health centers and small hospitals in rural and periurban areas can facilitate delivery. 4) Additonal funds totaling $1.6 billion a year can help those living in Africa's low-income areas obtain basic health services. Cost-sharing can make an important contribution to health equity and the sustainability of health services. The report emphasizes that no government should delay committing itself to the task, although progress toward better health will vary from country to country and no single formula will apply to all. Better Health in Africa presents action plans and yardsticks for measuring progress. The idea of the core, cost-effective package of health services complements World Development Report 1993: Investing in Health with an operationally oriented perspective on health services. The report also reflects the views of organizations such as the World Health Organization and UNICEF that will work together in helping African countries adapt and implement the report's recommendations. Also available: English (ISBN 0-8213-2817-4) Stock No. 12817; French (ISBN 0-8213-2818-2) Stock No. 12818.

India was home to the most cattle in the world in 1970, but even that wasn't enough to prevent a dairy industry crisis. Milk production had dropped to among the world's lowest, and the country's impoverished farmers needed relief. Government leaders responded with one of the largest rural development programs ever, transforming the dairy sector -- and millions of lives in the process. Operation Flood created a vast grid that connected rural farmers directly to consumers. In the process, India's National Dairy Development Board generated massive employment opportunities and enabled farmers to earn a greater percentage of profits. The results were astonishing: Within two decades, India ranked as the world's largest milk producer.

Operation Flood has attracted a great deal of attention in India and abroad. This volume considers some of the major issues raised by the programme. In particular it analyzes the factors responsible for the growth of the `Anand Pattern′ which has been chosen as the model for institutional intervention. The volume also covers the possibility of successfully replicating this model in differing agro-ecological and socio-economic environments and the impact of the investments made under Operation Flood on the agricultural sector and the structure of India′s cattle population. There are important sections on the ability of Operation Flood to act as an agent of the socio-economic transformation of weaker sections in rural society and the implications for the achievement of a self-reliant dairy economy on the investments made under the programme.