A central structural weakness currently hindering Nagaland’s dairy sector is its heavy reliance on an absentee-owner model. Dr. Yhome highlights that traditional dairy setups across the state frequently depend on hired labor brought in from outside Nagaland to handle herd management, milking, and daily cattle husbandry. Crucially, external labor networks often control milk distribution, retail pricing, and final marketing channels. As a result, local farm owners lack bargaining power over producer prices, allowing a substantial portion of the financial value and margin generated by the sector to be drained out of the state economy.

To reverse this capital flight, the NSDCF leadership calls on dedicated Naga entrepreneurs to take up dairy farming on a commercial scale through direct, hands-on management. By personally overseeing everyday operational workflows—including stable sanitation, selective breeding, scientific feed rations, automated milking, and direct-to-consumer sales—local owner-operators can retain the entire profit margin. This operational shift would stimulate local animal feed compounding units, build demand for regional processing equipment, and foster resilient micro-enterprises across rural Nagaland.

Drawing comparisons with national benchmarks, Dr. Yhome points to India’s cooperative giants, such as Amul (under the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation) and Mother Dairy in Delhi, as clear evidence of the scale, bargaining power, and sustainability achievable through producer-owned structures. Nagaland possesses the organizational framework to replicate these successful models through the NSDCF by systematically establishing primary village-level dairy cooperative societies (VDCS). These grassroots cooperatives ensure transparent, fat-tested milk pricing, establish recognized regional dairy brands, and pool smallholder output to achieve industrial economies of scale.