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Dairy Sector · Women in Agriculture

The Silent Backbone of India’s Dairy Economy: The Role of Women in Dairy Farming

India is the world’s largest producer of milk. In the fiscal year 2024, the country produced more than 239 million metric tons of milk, accounting for 24.76% of global milk output – a figure no other nation comes close to matching. The dairy sector contributes approximately 5% of India’s national GDP, with a market size exceeding Rs.18,975 billion, supporting the livelihoods of more than 80 million farming households (Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, 2024).

Behind this achievement stands a workforce that rarely makes headlines: the millions of rural women who perform the bulk of daily dairy work across the country. Their contribution is not marginal or supplementary. It is, by every credible measure, foundational.

What Women Actually Do on the Dairy Farm

Studies consistently estimate that women perform between 60% and 80% of the labor involved in smallholder dairy farming in India (Veterinary Paper, 2024). This is not a statistic to gloss over. It means that the animal feeding schedules, the early-morning milking, the cleaning of sheds, the monitoring of animal health, the management of fodder, the care of newborn calves, and the twice-daily effort of moving milk to collection points – all of this falls, in the majority of cases, on women.

Unlike men in rural households who may migrate seasonally for wage labor or manage crop fields, women often maintain uninterrupted daily presence on the farm. This makes them the de facto managers of dairy operations, even when formal ownership and credit access remain with male family members. The gap between who does the work and who holds the rights is one of the defining structural contradictions of India’s dairy sector.

“Farm women carry out more than 70% of activities in dairy farming. Yet ownership of livestock and control over income may still rest with male family members in many households.”
– Veterinary Paper (2024), Women in Indian Dairy Farming

The tasks themselves are physically demanding and relentless. Dairy farming does not pause for weather, illness, or festivals. The animals must be fed and milked every single day. In smallholder households with two to five animals – which describes the majority of India’s 90 million rural dairy-dependent households – the workload per animal is high and the margin for error is low. A missed feeding cycle or a delayed veterinary visit directly affects milk yield and, therefore, household income.

The Economics Behind the Contribution

Unlike crop farming, which is tied to the agricultural calendar, dairy provides income year-round. This steady cash flow makes it especially important for women who manage day-to-day household expenses. Research consistently shows that income from milk sales is disproportionately directed toward children’s education, household nutrition, healthcare costs, and debt repayment – spending categories that have long-term welfare consequences for entire families (Economic Empowerment of Women Through Household Dairy Farming, SpringerLink, 2023).

Studies from India’s rural heartlands confirm that when women control milk income – even partially – the probability of that income reaching children’s schooling and nutrition improves significantly. This is the upstream impact of women’s dairy work: it does not stop at the farm gate.

Sources: SpringerLink (2023); FAO – Gender Dynamics in Indian Agriculture; Village Square (2024)

Cooperatives and the Power of Collective Organization

Women’s involvement in dairy does not stop at the farm. Across India, millions of women participate in dairy cooperatives and self-help groups (SHGs) that provide access to milk collection infrastructure, veterinary services, animal feed, credit, and market linkages. This organized participation is where individual contributions begin to translate into economic and social agency.

Of the approximately 17 million farmers currently involved in cooperative dairying in India, around 30% are women – a figure the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) is actively working to push toward 50%. NDDB’s strategy includes mandating that every new dairy cooperative society formed should be a women’s cooperative, and ensuring that every new membership addition prioritizes women farmers. More than 48,000 women-led village-level dairy cooperative societies now operate across India (Village Square, 2024).

The DAY-NRLM (National Rural Livelihoods Mission), in partnership with NDDB, is supporting more than 81,000 women farmers through dairy value chain development interventions. Of all self-help groups operating in the dairy sector, 87.75% are women-led (Press Information Bureau, 2022). These are not token participation numbers. They represent a genuine base of organized women producers who have moved beyond individual farm operations into collective market participation.

The Challenges That Persist

Despite this scale of contribution, structural barriers remain substantial. Women dairy farmers in India face a consistent set of constraints: limited formal ownership of livestock, restricted access to institutional credit in their own name, lower participation in training and extension programs, and – in many regions – reduced mobility that limits their ability to access veterinary services, markets, or government schemes independently.

A 2024 study published in the Veterinary Paper notes that while women’s roles have expanded – particularly through cooperative membership and digital literacy programs – decision-making over herd composition, breed selection, and capital investment still remains with male household members in many contexts. Bridging this gap is not only a matter of equity. Research consistently shows that when women have greater control over productive assets, farm productivity and household welfare outcomes improve (FAO, 2024).

Technology as an Equalizer

The most promising development in women’s dairy empowerment over the past decade has not been a policy intervention – it has been the mobile phone. Digital advisory platforms, WhatsApp-based veterinary helplines, app-based milk price transparency tools, and digital payment for milk supplies have materially reduced the information and mobility disadvantages that historically constrained women dairy farmers.

When a woman farmer in rural Rajasthan can check the correct medication for mastitis without traveling to the nearest town, or receive payment directly to her Aadhaar-linked account rather than through a male intermediary, her operational autonomy increases in a measurable way. These are not marginal improvements – they compound over time into more productive farms, better animal health records, and more confident participation in cooperative governance.

Climate resilience is an equally pressing issue. As fodder availability becomes more unpredictable due to erratic monsoons and rising temperatures, women dairy farmers – who bear primary responsibility for sourcing and preparing animal feed – face increased labor burdens. Mongabay India (2024) has documented women-led initiatives specifically designed to address heat stress in dairy animals, demonstrating that women producers are not passive recipients of agricultural knowledge but active innovators within their communities.

Consistent access to high-quality animal nutrition – independent of season, land availability, or rainfall – is one of the most direct ways to reduce the daily workload burden on women dairy farmers while simultaneously improving milk yields. Systems that bring nutrition to the farm, rather than requiring farmers to source it from dispersed and variable markets, align directly with the operational reality of women-managed smallholder dairy.

Building the Next Chapter

India’s dairy sector is entering its next phase of growth. The market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 12.35% between 2025 and 2033. This growth will depend substantially on productivity improvements at the smallholder level – the level at which women do most of the work. Investments in skill development, formal ownership transfer, access to institutional finance, quality animal nutrition, and digital advisory infrastructure are not charity expenditures. They are the direct inputs into productivity growth for the sector’s largest workforce.

The story of India’s dairy success is, in many ways, the story of its women. Their contribution may rarely feature in sector headline statistics, but it is present in every litre of milk produced, every cooperative meeting held, and every household where dairy income pays school fees. Recognizing that contribution – and designing systems that reduce its cost while increasing its return – is the most important investment India’s dairy sector can make.

References and Sources

1. Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India. Year End Review 2024. pib.gov.in
2. National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). Milk Production in India; Enhancing Women Involvement in Cooperation. nddb.coop
3. Veterinary Paper (2024). Women in Indian Dairy Farming Business: Significance, Challenges and Contributions. veterinarypaper.com
4. SpringerLink (2023). Economic Empowerment of Women Through Household Dairy Farming in Rural India. link.springer.com
5. FAO (2024). Gender Dynamics and Economic Impacts: The Feminization of Indian Agriculture. fao.org
6. International Dairy Federation (IDF). India: Enhancing Participation of Women Dairy Farmers in Governance and Management of Dairy Cooperatives (2019). fil-idf.org
7. Press Information Bureau, Government of India (2022). Self Help Groups for Women in Dairy Sector. pib.gov.in
8. Village Square (2024). Empowered Women Dairy Farmers Create Ripple Effect. villagesquare.in
9. Mongabay India (2024). Women-led Initiative Offers Relief to Dairy Farmers Battling Heat Stress. india.mongabay.com
10. Brickwork Ratings (2025). Dairy Sector in India Report. brickworkratings.com
11. Shunya Agritech – Science and Protocols; Blog

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