A few months ago in Punjab, as grain farmers set fire to harvested rice fields to clear their land, Jagroop Singh spent the afternoon reflecting on his good fortune farming cows. Singh, a tall Sikh who tends his herd in a white tunic and pale pink turban on a farm near the north Indian village of Aliwal, owns 60 somewhat bony brown animals, which he keeps in an open-air shed on the edge of the fields behind his house.

Keeping cows, like farming wheat, has been an immensely profitable business during the past year, because Singh gets paid a lot more for his milk than he used to. He receives about Rs15 a litre - a third more than two years ago - from Nestle India, which collects the milk and blasts it through machines at a nearby factory, evaporating the water and creating a fine white powder.