White
Truth
Shuchi
Srivastava delves into the past to put in perspective the peculiar paradox
that mires the milk industry at present
At
the time India gained independence, procurement from rural areas and
its marketing in the urban areas was the major problem in Indian dairying.
In one of the earliest urban milk supply schemes, Polsons – a private
dairy at Anand – procured milk from producers through middlemen, processed
it and then sent it to Bombay. When the milk producers in Kaira, a district
in Gujarat, asked for a proportionate share of the trade margins, they
were denied even a modest increase. The producers went on strike, refusing
to supply milk. On the advice of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, a pre-eminent
leader in the independence movement, the producers registered the Kaira
District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union, now popularly known as Amul,
in 1946.
The
Kaira union procured milk from affiliated village-level milk societies.
This was the genesis of organised milk marketing in India, a pioneering
effort that opened a new vista for dairy development in the country.
Amul formed the basis for the Anand Model of dairying. The basic unit
in this model is the milk producers’ cooperative society at the village
level. These cooperatives are organisations of milk producers who wish
to market their milk collectively. Membership is open to all who need
the cooperative’s services and who are willing to accept the responsibilities
of being a member. Decisions are taken on the basis of one member exercising
one vote. No privilege accrues to capital, and economic returns, whether
profit or loss, are divided among the members in proportion to patronage.
Each cooperative is expected to carry out the continuing education of
its members, elected leaders and employees.
All
the milk cooperatives in a district form a union that, ideally, has
its own processing facilities. All the unions in a state are normally
members of a federation whose prime responsibility is the marketing
of milk and milk products outside the state. Thus, the Anand Model has
evolved into an integrated approach to systematic dairy development.
Operation
Flood
This
was a programme designed to develop dairying by replicating the Anand
Model. The first phase of Operation Flood was launched in 1970, following
an agreement with the World Food Programme, which undertook to provide
as aid 12,6000 tonnes of skimmed milk powder and 42,000 tonnes of butter
oil to finance the programme. The programme involved organising dairy
cooperatives at the village level; creating the physical and institutional
infrastructure for milk procurement, processing, marketing and production
enhancement services at the union level; and establishing dairies in
India’s major metropolitan centres.
In
achieving that goal, the first phase of Operation Flood laid the foundation
of an industry that would ultimately meet the country’s need for milk
and milk products. The second phase of the programme was implemented
between 1981 and 1985. The current, phase of Operation Flood aims at
ensuring that the cooperative institutions become self-sustaining. With
an investment of $360 million from the World Bank, commodity and cash
assistance from the European Economic Commission and National Dairy
Development Board’s own internal resources, the programme envisages
substantial expansion of the dairy processing and marketing facilities;
an extended milk procurement infrastructure; increased outreach of production
enhancement activities; and making dairy institutions more professional.
Current
situation
In
the early 1950s, India was commercially importing around 55,000 tonnes
of milk powder annually to meet the urban milk demand. Cut to 2000-2001,
India’s milk output was estimated to be 81 million tonnes and reached
the level of 85 million tonnes during 2001-02. This has not only placed
the industry first in the world, but also....
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