The present study investigated production, marketed surplus, consumption and disposal pattern of milk in Andhra Pradesh. The study covered 160 milk producers selected randomly from eight village dairy cooperatives which were post-stratified into small, medium and large herd size category. The study revealed that Overall average milk production was higher for member households (42.15 litres) as compared to non-member households (24.99 litres), respectively. Overall average milk consumption per day per household was lower in the member group (1.51 litres) than non-member group (2.06 litres), respectively. The average quantity of marketed surplus of milk per day per household was higher in the member group (40.64 litres) as compared to the non-member group (22.93 litres), respectively. Out of total quantity of milk disposed off per day by the member households, 96.21 per cent was disposed to dairy cooperatives followed by 2.84 per cent to milk vendors, 1.03 per cent to tea shops and only 0.91 per cent to consumers directly. Similarly, for non-member households, 80.50 per cent was disposed to dairy cooperatives followed by 12.88 per cent to private dairies, 2.49 per cent to milk vendors, 2.11 per cent to tea shops and only 2.03 per cent to consumers directly in the study area.

Background: In India dairy farming is a significant part of the rural population, providing not only supplementary income and nutritional standards but also organic manures and draught power. Andhra Pradesh ranks 5th in total milk production in India with an output of 15.04 million metric tonnes and Chittoor district is one of the leading districts for dairy farming in the state. There is an increasing trend in milk production; however, the main drawback faced by the milk producers in dairy farming is the low productivity of milch animals. Assessing the economics of milk production would be extremely beneficial in planning for the improvement of productivity of dairy animals and framing policies to increase the profitability of dairy farms. Methods: Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh was purposively selected for the present investigation. The primary data was collected from 80 respondents of which 40 each from two villages in the year 2021. The economics of milk production and the resource use efficiency of milk were computed based on collected data. Result: The per-day gross cost for maintaining local cow, crossbred cow and buffalo was found to be ₹ 161.09, ₹ 246.16 and ₹ 196.07, respectively. The overall cost per litre of milk was found to be slightly high in the case of buffalo (₹ 31.45), followed by the local cow (₹ 31.33) and crossbred cow (₹ 19.69), respectively. The net returns per litre of milk were found to be highest in the case of the crossbred cow (₹ 7.45), followed by buffalo (₹ 3.66) and local cow (₹ 0.12). It was observed that the net return per litre of milk for local cows was very less due to high feed cost, labour cost and low productivity of milk. Green fodder, dry fodder and concentrate were observed underutilized whereas labour was found to be over-utilized.