www.IndianJournals.com Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale Downloaded From IP - 14.139.57.98 on dated 22-Aug-2015 161 Indian J Econ Dev DOI No. 10.5958/j.2322-0430.10.1a.037 Volume 10 (1a) 2014: 161-166 Research Article ANALYSIS OF MARKETED SURPLUS AND DISPOSAL PATTERN OF MILK ON COMMERCIAL DAIRY FARMS IN MAHARASHTRA Avinash K. Ghule, A. K. Chauhan, Sumit Mahajan and Bulbul Nagrale * ABSTRACT As the demand for milk and milk product is increasing rapidly, milk producers have been adopting dairy farming as a commercial enterprise to tap the market opportunities. The present study was aimed at the estimation of marketed surplus of milk and analyse its disposal pattern on commercial dairy farms of Maharashtra. Primary data collected from a sample of 40 commercial dairy farms drawn from two clusters of six villages each in two tehsils of Ahmednagar district were utilised for the study. The commercial farms were classified into small, medium and large categories based on herd size. The study revealed that the marketed surplus as percentage of milk production was 94.48, 94.81 and 96.96 percent for small, medium and large commercial farms, respectively. The contribution of small, medium and large category of farms to the total marketed surplus was 38.69, 20.68 and 40.63 percent, respectively. The commercial dairy farms in the study area had preference for organised agencies to dispose off their produce. Out of total quantity of milk marketed per day by the sample farms, 33.16 percent of marketed surplus was disposed to cooperative dairy, 55.65 percent to private dairy and the rest 11.19 percent was sold to the vendor. Key words: Commercial dairy, marketed surplus, disposal pattern JEL Classification: C81, Q11, Q13, Q18 * Dairy Economics, Statistics and Management Di- vision, National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal (Haryana)-132001 Email: anil5554@rediffmail.com INTRODUCTION Dairy Industry in India is one of the fastest expanding industries in the world. The demand for milk is tremendous, and is growing not only in cities but also in small towns and rural areas. In the wake of increasing middle class population with high disposable income along with fast changing socio-economic and cultural values and health consciousness, there exists latent ready market for milk and milk products which can be effectively tapped. In such a changing scenario the livestock sector is positioned to be a major growth engine for India’s modern dairy sector. The total quantity of milk produced has increased more than two times from 53.9 million tonnes in the year 1990-91 to 127.9 million tonnes in 2011-12. The tremendous rise in milk production is primarily due to conducive dairy development programmers launched in the country. The milk processing industry is relatively small compared to the huge milk marketed every year (Economic Survey of India, 2012-13). Despite impressive growth