A buffalo tale - Kimberly Gilmour

The buffalo - big horns, fairly ugly, with a fondness for wallowing hippo-like in puddles – I can’t say it’s an animal I’d thought much about before starting my five month DiA placement at Seva Mandir. Nor did I really expect to find myself, shortly after arrival in India, more or less in the middle of nowhere, the Rajasthani sun beating down on my head, traipsing over dusty paths and yellowing scrub in search of said buffalo. But then again, who would?

Buffalo are experts at keeping cool in the sweltering Indian climate. In the shade…

Still, this fairly unremarkable, slightly scary looking animal, and the milk it produces, has been the means by which many of India’s poorest and most marginalized people have been able to earn a regular, reliable and sustainable income.

In India, the humble buffalo and sustainable development have, rather surprisingly, been interconnected for over half a century.

Before I spout off an endless array of buffalo-related facts (which in my present state of buffalo-obsession I find worryingly fascinating), let me start from the very beginning.

When India gained independence in 1947, the country was reliant on around 55,000 tons of commercially imported milk powder annually to meet the increasing urban demand. These low-cost imports from advanced dairying nations were out-competing domestic milk supplies and causing a stagnation in production and development of India’s own dairy industry. In short, Indian dairying was in dire straits.

…or in the deliciously cool muddy water!

This, conveniently, is where the buffalo come in – not only are they bigger, scarier and more intriguing than your average cow, they actually produce far superior milk with a fat content around 50-60% higher than that produced by cows. As a result, buffalo milk isn’t just really tasty; it’s also great for manufacturing additional milk-related products such as cheese and butter. Another handy benefit surrounding the buffalo is that its nutritional needs can be largely met by low-grade foods such as straw and crop residues and other agricultural by-products. Thus, farmer inputs are far lower than that necessary for cattle, and therefore buffalo are ideally suited to the conditions of India’s rural poor.

It wasn’t long before the government began to recognise the potential of the milk-producing buffalo, both as a means of sustainable development through income generation for the nation’s desperately poor rural population, and as a way of cutting out foreign imports altogether by meeting the ever increasing urban demand via a domestic product. With this goal in mind, in 1970 the country’s National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), in partnership with the government, launched a unique approach to dairy development know as “Operation Flood”. This pioneering programme recognised the potential of European surpluses as an investment to encourage the development of India’s struggling dairy industry. With the assistance of the World Food Programme, food aid from Europe (in the form of 42,000 tons of butter oil and 126,000 tons of milk powder) was used to stabilise market fluctuations and prime a market that would later be supplied by domestic production. This was the first time in the history of economic development that food aid was used by the recipient country as an important investment resource.

Buffalo are cleaned in the holy waters of the sacred river Ganges

During the various phases of Operation Flood, extending over twenty years, dairy co-operatives were organised at the village level and linked to India’s main urban areas – thus providing a route through which small-scale rural milk producers could meet the increasing demand of the ever-expanding urban populace. The dairy co-operatives ensured that farmers themselves got the maximum return from each rupee spent by the consumer on milk products, by cutting out the middlemen and marketing the milk themselves.

Today, the majority of the nation’s milk supply comes from some 8.4 million small producers (typically owning only one or two buffalo), dispersed throughout the rural areas that together own around 70% of the nation’s 98 million-strong buffalo population. These small producers sell their milk through some 70,000 dairy co-operative societies and produce on average 12.3 million kg per day. As such, in 2001, India overtook the United States to become the world leader in milk production with an annual output of 84 million tons.

Not only is the country now completely self-sufficient in terms of dairy products, small-scale dairying has proved to be a vital lifeline for those previously dependent on agricultural land prone to both flooding and drought. For such families, regular milk sales provide a valuable source of reliable income and thus break the cycle of debt brought on by the uncertain nature of agricultural subsistence.

It was on this premise that I was sent off to gallivant across rural Rajasthan in pursuit of the animal that made dairy development possible – the buffalo (are you sensing a theme yet?)

Aware of the tremendous value of dairying as an instrument for sustainable development, Seva Mandir (a well established NGO based in Udaipur, Rajasthan and my placement hosts) recently embarked on a five-year programme, which saw them initiating a dairy scheme in two villages around 61km south west of the city.

Targeted solely at women (more specifically members of Seva Mandir-initiated Self Help Groups or SHGs) the scheme aimed not only to provide additional income to families already living below the poverty line but through such earnings to encourage confidence among the women involved. To equip them with valuable financial and practical skills and to provide some form of bargaining power in rural households, which are largely centred on male needs.

By acting as a link between a government self-employment initiative, milk co-operative and villager, Seva Mandir facilitated access to grants, low interest loans, support and training.

Initiated in the summer of 2005, it was my job to assess the current situation of the programme in both villages and to write a report on its present status. So followed much dairy product consumption (for research purposes, obviously), many a long meeting (during which, turbaned men speaking loudly in Hindi, paused periodically to comment on the strange white girl sitting in the corner who seemed to have an unhealthy interest in milk), and endless walks with Vikas, my translator (ever amused by the buffalo theme), through stunning countryside in search of lactating buffalo and their female owners.

So, there you have it – my buffalo story, or tale, if you will.

While my buffalo exploits obviously provide many an amusing anecdote, in all seriousness, this is really quite a lovable animal (what can I say, it grows on you!). Along with a little help from the NDDB, the government, and NGOs throughout the country, the humble buffalo has transformed the lives of millions of small-scale farmers throughout India – bringing real, sustainable change, where it’s needed most.