Dairy Farming in Andhra Pradesh — A Case Study in Prakasam District

The paper has studied dairy farming in Andhra Pradesh by taking the case of Prakasam district, which has 18 milk processing units and 5 more units are coming up to utilize the abundant milk available in the district. In terms of food safety and quality, there still seems to be a long way to go in achieving internationally acceptable food safety and quality standards in southern Andhra Pradesh's dairy sector. It seems unlikely that with the existing milk production structures, the food quality and safety standards of the west can be satisfied. Several structural transformations seem to be required. In terms of reach, dairy farming has been found more common across rich households with more land. The dairy income represents a considerable share even for poor households (for landless rural households, it is about 12 per cent on average, which is 25 per cent of their total income, when households with only dairy animals were considered). However, there is scope for enhancement of the effectiveness of government dairy support programs, as a major share of the subsidies currently goes to the households of the large livestock and landholding categories.