Rank	Region Name	Value (g/day)
1	Punjab	1,245
2	Rajasthan	1,171
3	Haryana	1,105
4	Gujarat	700
5	Andhra Pradesh	719
6	Himachal Pradesh	640
7	Madhya Pradesh	673
8	Jammu and Kashmir	577
9	Karnataka	543
10	Uttar Pradesh	450
11	Uttarakhand	446
12	Telangana	419
13	Tamil Nadu	384
14	Maharashtra	347
15	Sikkim	321
16	Bihar	277
17	Ladakh	267
18	West Bengal	211
19	Jharkhand	209
20	Kerala	197
21	Chhattisgarh	192
22	Tripura	163
23	Odisha	156
24	Chandigarh	131
25	Andaman and Nicobar Islands	119
26	Goa	110
27	Puducherry	96
28	Assam	84
29	Meghalaya	79
30	Arunachal Pradesh	35
31	Nagaland	65
32	Mizoram	56
33	Manipur	54
34	Delhi	62
35	Lakshadweep	15
36	DNHDD	4

It may be tempting to feel proud that India’s national per capita milk availability of 471 grams per day in 2023–24 is higher than the global average of 329 grams per day.

But, looking at each state individually, there are many problems with how milk is distributed throughout the country.

For example, in terms of per capita availability, some states have an enormous advantage over others.

In fact, the difference between the top-ranked state and the bottom-ranked state is so big that it can’t be explained by just small differences in the amount of milk available in those two states.

In other words, India does not have a single problem with milk distribution.

Instead, India is plagued by structural issues in livestock density, the structure and quality of procurement systems, and population pressures.

This is why the gap between rank 1 and rank 36 is over 1,200 grams per day – not a gradual decline, but a dramatic drop in terms of where a person lives, which affects whether they have access to milk.

The Northwest Axis: Why the Top Three Have Such High Availability Rates

At the top end of milk availability rates, we find three states that together account for over half of all milk produced in India.

Those three states are Punjab (1,245 g/day), Rajasthan (1,171 g/day), and Haryana (1,105 g/day).

There are several reasons these states have such high availability rates.

First, they have much larger numbers of bovines (than the rest of India); second, they have long-standing cooperative networks that allow them to buy milk from farmers on a regular basis; and third, because these states have relatively few people per unit of land, they do not face the same level of pressure that states with greater population densities experience.

In fact, Punjab produces enough extra milk that much of it is sold outside of its own borders to less wealthy states that cannot produce enough for themselves.

These advantages, however, come at a cost. One major disadvantage is that the continued growth of milk production in Punjab will eventually be limited by water availability.

Since much of Punjab’s grasslands for its bovines rely on underground aquifers to grow pasture for its cattle, the long-term math looks very poor.

Therefore, while Punjab will likely continue to dominate milk production for years to come, doing so comes at the expense of its future environmental sustainability.

Other states such as Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh also enjoy high levels of milk availability, ranging from approximately 650 grams per day to over 1300 grams per day.

However, unlike the top three states (Punjab/Haryana/Rajasthan), none of these states face challenges in increasing their total milk production.

Instead, the main challenge facing these states will be converting their increased milk production into better revenue opportunities for their dairy farmers and developing more sustainable business models.

The Middle Band: Milk Production Volume Does Not Translate Into Higher Availability Per Person

One of the most interesting positions in this table is number ten, Uttar Pradesh, with 450 grams per day.

While Uttar Pradesh is the number one milk-producing state in India in terms of total annual milk production, its per capita rate is significantly lower than that of many other leading producers.

The reason for this disparity is that Uttar Pradesh has a huge population, in excess of 230 million, that consumes virtually all the milk produced within its borders.

Consequently, unlike many other top milk-producing states, such as Gujarat (rank four with 700 g/day) and Madhya Pradesh (rank seven with 673 g/day), whose smaller relative populations, combined with strong cooperative organizations, enable them to capture more of their domestic production in surplus for eventual sale elsewhere.

Maharashtra (rank fourteen with 347 g/day), where the demand for milk has shifted towards processing and institutional purchases rather than consumption as a fluid commodity for household purposes, thereby limiting its overall per capita availability; Uttar Pradesh continues to struggle with absorbing its large internal market before generating any substantial amounts of surplus for export or resale.

The Southern Asymmetry: Kerala as a Dairy Supply System Structural Paradox

Ranking twenty on our list is Kerala with a per capita availability of only 197 grams per day. At first glance, this seems to contradict the common image of Kerala as both affluent and well-educated regarding dietary practices, including dairy products.

However, this apparent contradiction stems from structural factors inherent in dairy supply architectures.

Specifically, due to its coastal and hilltop terrain, Kerala lacks sufficient space for large-scale bovine farming operations.

Therefore, Kerala relies heavily on imports of dairy products from surrounding states such as Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, which greatly increases effective prices and shifts the product away from direct household liquid consumption.

As previously mentioned, Andhra Pradesh (ranked fifth at 719 g/day) benefits indirectly from its role in meeting cross-border demand for milk-based products.

Furthermore, since Andhra Pradesh established a robust cooperative network across southern India before Kerala did, the geographic distance between these two states provides evidence that the configuration and accessibility of dairy infrastructure are far more influential on consumer access to dairy than economic development status alone.

The Northeast Deficit: A Structural Issue, Not A Lack Of Desire For Dairy

On the opposite side of the table are six states located in northeast India: Mizoram (-81.78%), Nagaland (-79.54%), Manipur (-79.45%), Meghalaya (-74.26%), Arunachal Pradesh (-73.13%), and Assam (-74.02%) that fall below ICMR recommended daily intake levels for milk.

Similar to previous examples cited in this analysis (e.g., Andhra Pradesh/Kerala), we see another case of a structural barrier preventing consumers from accessing adequate levels of milk.

In this case, fodder cultivation limitations and inadequate veterinary services, along with expensive logistical barriers to transporting surplus milk from productive states in northwest India to these markets in northeast India.

The area of the country that includes all states other than those in the “Dairy Heartland” has an average per-person milk availability of less than 300 milliliters (mL) per day.

Therefore, there is a consistent deficiency of both proteins and calcium in each individual’s diet. Milk production in northeastern states grew at a compound annual growth rate of 1.59 percent.

This was much slower than the national compound annual growth rate of 3.83 percent.

Thus, if current trends prevail, we can expect the gap between the national average for milk production and the average for the northeastern states to widen rather than narrow.

Future Consequences: The Danger of National Average Values

India has experienced over a 50 percent increase in milk production over the past nine years. In addition, India now ranks Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan as its largest producing states.

As such, the rapid growth of milk production in India has been primarily concentrated in states that already rank highly on this table.

National average values will continue to rise because they mask structural stagnation in areas where insufficient milk is produced.

Therefore, India’s dairy problem is no longer about milk production but about how milk produced in these large states is distributed across the remaining states.

No matter what ranking this table achieves, until we make investments in cold chains for eastern and northeastern India or develop methods for transporting milk from surplus-producing states to deficit-producing states (such as states currently ranked #1 to #33), the existing gradient between the two extremes does not represent progress toward our goal.

References

1. National Dairy Development Board. (2025). Per capita availability of milk by States/UTs (2009-10 to 2023-24). NDDB Statistics. https://beta.nddb.coop/information/statistics/per-capita-availability-of-milk-by-states-uts/
2. Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India. (2024). Year end review 2024: Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying. Press Information Bureau. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2086052
3. Press Information Bureau, Government of India. (2024). Milk production and adulteration. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2080137
4. Saikia, B., Hazarika, A., & Das, A. (2024). Milk production trends and per capita availability in northeastern states of India. Indian Journal of Animal Sciences, 94(10). https://doaj.org/article/0881b50a3a784493816aad6c10948137
5. Dairy Dimension. (2025, December 29). India’s milk availability map, 2024-25: Reading the gradients beneath the averages. https://dairydimension.com/india-milk-availability-map-2024-25-analysis/
6. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2024). Food outlook: Biannual report on global food markets (November 2024). FAO. https://www.fao.org/giews/food-prices/food-outlook/
7. National Sample Survey Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India. (2023). Household consumption expenditure survey 2022-23. Government of India.