Maximum People Of thickly populated India live in villages. Majority of them are involved in agriculture. The cattle animal is correlated with agriculture in India as the old method of cultivation is still vogue here. Rearing of cattle animal is also an additional source of income of the villagers in our country. We get from our ancient history that the domistication of the cow and the buffalo dates back to nearly 4000 years. Scriptures of India refer to the wealth through the word ‘Godhan’. Maximum proportion of cows and buffaloes of the world are seen in India. But India produces only five percent of the total quantity of milk produced in the whole world. This amount is too inadequate to meet the country’s demand. The supply of milk in some parts of India is higher than the local demand. On the other hand, supply of milk in the rest of the country as well as in urban areas is much lower than the demand.
In 1965, National Dairy Development Board (N.D.D.B) was set up with the object of meeting the increasing demand of milk specially in urban areas as well as developing the rural economy through the enhancement of the milk production of the country. In 1970 National Dairy Development Board took up Operation Flood Programme in order to organise Milk Producers’ Co-operative in several probable places of India taking the Kaira District (Anand) Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Limited (AMUL) of Anand, Gujarat as a model with the above object in view. The Himalayan Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited (HIMUL) was formed at the foot of the Himalayas in West Bengal in 1973 as a part of this programme like other states of the country.
According to Operation Flood Programme many Milk Producers’ Cooperative have been formed in this vast country. For the benefit of detailed analysis only two Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Limited - The Kaira District (ANAND) Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Limited and The Himalayan Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Limited, have been taken into account.
History of Dairy Co-operative in India
The Co-operative movement started in India in the last decade of the 19th Century with two objects in view, i.e. to protect the farmers from the hands of the private money lenders and to improve their economic condition. Madras province was the birth-place of this movement. With the setting up of an Agricultural Co-operative Banks there the movement took root in our Land and slowly gained strength. However, the growth of Co-operative movement in India during British rule was very slow and haphazard one. In most of the cases, the provincial governments took the lead. The foreign ruler had only made some committees or framed a few rules and regulations. But they did not take any wide-ranging programme to spread the movement all over the country.
The golden era of Co-operative movement began after India had won freedom. Within two decades of independence the membership of primary societies had increased four times while the share capital and working capital increased 23 and 31 times respectively. The history of Dairy Development Movement in India is a new one. During the pre-independence period this movement was limited to a few pockets of Calcutta, Madras, Bangalore and Gujarat.
White Revolution
In early 1999, the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) declared India as the world's largest producer of milk. According to FAO's Global Food Outlook Report, milk production in India crossed 74 million tonnes (mts) by March 1999, while milk production in the US, the second largest producer, was 71 mts (See Exhibit I for the world's top five milk producing nations).
| This was truly a moment of glory for India, which, less than four decades earlier, had been a milk-deficit country. According to analysts, India's transformation into a milk surplus country was largely due to the collective initiative undertaken by various government and semi-government bodies to promote milk production and animal husbandry. In 1970, 'Operation Flood (OF)' was launched by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), an institution constituted as a body corporate in 1965. Declared as an 'institution of national importance' by an Act of Parliament, in 1965, NDDB was established with the objective of replicating the 'Anand Model' of dairy development. |
The most notable of this venture was Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Limited of Anand, Gujarat. But after independence the National Government took great initiative in setting up new Dairy Co-operatives in many parts of the country. The National Dairy Development Board was set up to make the ambitious project a success. By the late 1990s, NDDB's success with the co-operative movement in India attracted the attention of many other developing countries as well as international agencies related to dairy development.
| The countries which were inspired by the 'Operation Flood' project and which planned to implement similar projects included Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Philippines and Malaysia, besides a few African nations. Helping other emerging countries establish co-operatives in the dairy industry was one of the elements of the three-pronged strategic plan outlined by Amrita Patel (Patel), who took over as chairman of NDDB in 1999 (after Kurien's 33-year stint). In addition to aiming at capitalizing the success of co-operative-run diaries, the plan also involved transforming India into a major milk exporter and extending the co-operative model to other domestic agricultural products. |
Progress of Operation Flood
The Operation Flood Programme was undertaken after the National Dairy Development Board had been formed in 1965. The programme aimed at bringing the shortage of milk supply in the four Metropolitan cities of Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Delhi into agreement with the abundance of milk production in adjoining villages of the cities. Simply speaking, it tried to achieve a two-fold objective - increasing the production of milk and making equilibrium of supply and demand in the milk market. It was then decided that the Milk Co-operative formed on Anand pattern in all over the country should be reorganised, the excess milk would be procured at a fair price and be supplied to the cities. The Anand pattern had been accepted as the model because the Kaira District Milk Producers’ Co-operative Union Limited (AMUL) was then recognised as the only ideal Milk Union of the country. In the initial stages of the programme India received a huge amount of butter oil and milk powder as gift from the European Economic Community (EEC).
The progress of the Operation Flood Programme all over India has been quite commendable. Before the implementation of the programme both the production of milk as well as the per capita milk consumption was too low. The position at present, has undergone a distinctive change. Apart from the increase of milk production and its per capita consumption a great number of Village Milk Co-operative Societies have come up. The trend of keeping milk animals in a scientific method has registered an increase too. As a result, import of milk powder from foreign countries substantially dropped and after 1976, its import on a commercial basis stopped totally. However the country got little amounts of milk powder after that as gift. This testified to the fact that, with the inception of the Operation Flood Programme, the Dairy Development Movement in India and also the Dairy Industry has made remarkable progress.
Despite that, the rate of progress has not been the same in different zones. While the Eastern zone is lagging far behind the other zones in this respect, the Western Zone has gone far ahead of others.
Back Ground of ‘AMUL and HIMUL’
Both Amul and Himul have a historical heritage. The density of population, percentage of literacy, agricultural products, economic status, geographical area, milk production in both the areas where Amul and Himul are located have something common in them. Nevertheless, the dissimilarities between the two are more glaring.
The establishment of Amul has back-ground of long struggle and movements. But Himul was totally a Government enterprise. Amul Co-operative has the blessings of the National leaders of pre-independence days. The strong determination and indomitable courage of the local milk producers were its main support. The people of the area have realised through experience what a Co-operative actually stands for and how the people and above all, the nation may be benefited by it. This cannot be said of Himul. It was as if imposed on the people of Darjeeling District and Sadar Sub-division of Jalpaiguri District and of Islampur Sub-Division of West Dinapur District. People were main force behind Amul, whereas in case of Himul the government was the enterpreneur - Himul is the foster-child of the Government while Amul is of the masses.
Formation of NDDB
While Amul laid the foundation for a systematic approach to dairy development in India, through the early 1950s, the government also began its efforts to modernize the dairy industry. As a part of this, it made modernization of the industry a priority under the first Five-Year Plan of India in 1951. Under this, the government set itself the goal of providing hygienic milk to the growing urban population.
| To achieve this goal, the government encouraged establishment of dairy co-operative societies and also organized 'milk schemes' in all major cities across the country. It also implemented the Intensive Cattle Development Project (ICDP), which focused on artificial insemination and veterinary services and the Small Farmer Development Agencies (SFDA) which offered cattle farmers (milk producers), financial aid to enhance milk production. In 1959, the government introduced the 'Delhi Milk Scheme' to cater to the milk requirements of the national capital, Delhi. Under this scheme, government milk plants collected milk at chilling centers through middlemen... |
Dairy Cooperatives account for the major share of processed liquid milk marketed in the country. Milk is processed and marketed by 170 Milk Producers' Cooperative Unions, which federate into 15 State Cooperative Milk Marketing Federations.The Dairy Board's programmes and activities seek to strengthen the functioning of Dairy Cooperatives, as producer-owned and controlled organisations. NDDB supports the development of dairy cooperatives by providing them financial assistance and technical expertise, ensuring a better future for India's farmers. Over the years, brands created by cooperatives have become synonymous with quality and value. Brands like Amul (GCMMF), Vijaya (AP), Verka (Punjab), Saras (Rajasthan). Nandini (Karnataka), Milma (Kerala) and Gokul (Kolhapur) are among those that have earned customer confidence.
Some of the major Dairy Cooperative Federations include:
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Milk Production
• India's milk production increased from 21.2 million MT in 1968 to 88.1 million MT in 2003-04.
• Per capita availability of milk presently is 231 grams per day, up from 112 grams per day in 1968-69.
• India's 3.8 percent annual growth of milk production surpasses the 2 per cent growth in population; the net increase in availability is around 2 per cent per year.
Marketing
• In 2003-04, average daily cooperative milk marketing stood at 148.75 lakh litres; annual growth has averaged about 4.2 per cent compounded over the last five years.
• Dairy Cooperatives now market milk in about 200 cities including metros and some 550 smaller towns..
• During the last decade, the daily milk supply per 1,000 urban consumers has increased from 17.5 to 52.0 litres.
Innovation
• Bulk vending - saving money.
• Milk travels as far as 2,200 kilometers to deficit areas, carried by innovative rail and road milk tankers.
• Ninety-five percent of dairy equipment is produced in India, saving valuable foreign exchange.
Macro Impact
• The annual value of India's milk production amounts to about Rs. 880 billion.
• Dairy cooperatives generate employment opportunities for some 12 million farm families.
Future of Dairy Co-Operative Movement in India
However, Operation Flood failed to replicate the success of Amul in states other than Gujarat. Analysts cited reasons, such as political interference, bureaucratic apathy, lack of a professional approach, and a lack of knowledge among the co-operative board and committee members of how to run co-operatives, for this failure. Commenting on this, Kurien said, "Unless it is truly run as a cooperative, it cannot be a success. If it is not run for economic reasons and the chairman and the board is not elected from among those who produce the milk, it will never succeed..."
The Stalemate Continues
Even by mid-2003, there were no signs of a truce between GCMMF and NDDB. Kurien still vehemently opposed NDDB's strategy while Patel supported it with equal intensity. She said that the proposal was aimed at benefiting co-operatives, by providing a professional marketing network to help them survive competition. "Their marketing is in a huge mess. All we are doing is partnering them to see that they do well," she said. By this time, NDDB had already entered into JVs with the state milk federations of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, which marketed the Vijaya and Milma brands respectively.
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