Entrepreneurs going the milky way

Sandip Das

Mandakini Rathod, a resident of Palanpur in north Gujarat, used to teach in a local school. Eight years ago, she took the plunge and set up a small dairy business, borrowing Rs 60,000 from her father. Her business, which started with two cows reared on two acres of rented land at Dhandha village in Banaskantha district, has since grown to have a strength of 50 cows and buffaloes. Rathod has shifted her dairy farm to 5-acre land closer to Palanpur city on the Abu highway. She has plans to increase the herd size to 100 animals in the next two years. Rathod sells around 250 litres of milk per day to the nearest village dairy cooperative society linked to north Gujarat-based Banaskantha District Co-operative Milk Producers Union, aka Banas dairy.

She earns Rs 70,000/month from the dairy business which she feels could have never earned had she stuck to her teaching job at a primary school. She has invested around Rs 11 lakh in the dairy farm from her savings.

The Banas dairy, India’s biggest district cooperative under the state federation — Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), also known as Amul — declares annual bonus of around 8% on the volume of milk supplied to cooperatives to farmers. Thanks to people like Rathod and lakhs of farmers associated with the GCMMF’s robust milk cooperative network, this dry district bordering Rajasthan has been India’s milk capital for around a decade and continues to supply milk to NCR and other regions as well.

In Jharkhand, Indradev Kumar Mahato, who hails from Gudu village near Ranchi, loves attending to his 30 cows daily along with a couple of labourers he has kept for his dairy business. Mahato left his flourishing catering business as well as guest house he ran in Bengaluru for more than three decades to return to his village in 2016. Initially, Mahato dabbled in the hardware business, but incurred losses.

He came in touch with the Jharkhand Milk Federation (Medha), which procures milk from dairy farmers and sells milk and dairy products under the brand name Medha. Initially, he purchased two cows and as his dairy business started to grow, Mahato took Rs 10-lakh loan under the Dairy Entrepreneurship Development Scheme (with a subsidy component) implemented by the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD); his herd size has increased to 30 cows. On an average, he supplies 300 litres of milk daily to Medha (supported by the National Dairy Development Board), worth Rs 9,000-10,000. He earns around Rs 80,000 a month. He says dairying has given him a sense of commitment and engagement far away from the hustle and bustle of India’s information technology (IT) capital Bengaluru.

Deepak Gupta, after 30 years of holding senior positions in various companies, including the head of Asia operations of a major MNC associated with the agri-commodities’ business, left his job (based out of Singapore) and set up a modern dairy farm in Punjab. Against the advice of friends and close associates, he set up a sprawling 200-acre dairy plant named Himalayan Creamery at Rohti Basta Singh Wali village in Patiala district. Gupta’s aim was to set up a ‘single-source dairy farm’ producing pure milk and milk products which could be sold directly to consumers. The farm has 500 cows and produces 6,000 litres of milk daily. On the farm, green fodder, wheat and vegetables are grown using organic farming techniques.

Gupta, who holds an Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card, has engaged 60 people to run the creamery and his consumer base is increasing steadily. Calling himself a ‘social entrepreneur’, Deepak says, “We have been following best practices in dairy farming with local farmers. We educate them about animal health, feeding and hygiene, and create employment opportunities for the rural youth and elders.”

There are a large number of entrepreneurs like Rathod, Mahato and Gupta who have taken up dairying as a social business which provides steady economic opportunities for themselves as well as those associated with their ventures. India’s milk output has been growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.5% over the past two decades or so. The global growth rate in milk production in the past decade is less than 2% CAGR. The total value of the annual milk production in India is around Rs 7 lakh crore ($100 billion), which is more than the total value of grains and pulses.

“India is not only the largest milk producer of the world but also the largest consumer of milk globally. India is also one of the fastest growing markets for branded dairy products,” Ramsinbhai P Parmar, Chairman, GCMMF (Amul), had said at the annual general body meeting in June 2019.

The dairy business has attracted many people in Punjab who used to do regular jobs. Gurdhian Singh of Gharachon village in Sangrur district has eight animals that supply 40 litres of milk daily to Baani Milk Producer Company, established with the support of the NDDB dairy services in Punjab. Baani, set up in March 2016, has more than 50,000 members in its catchment areas across Moga, Faridkot, Barnala, Bathinda, Muktsar and Sangrur districts. Ever since he commenced milk supplies to Baani, Gurdhian has been earning Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 monthly after taking into consideration the expenses and meeting the milk need of his six-member family. Once the Covid-19 crisis ends, he wants to expand his business by keeping more animals.

The National Milk Safety and Quality Survey 2018 of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had indicated that milk being sold in India was largely safe for consumption. This has ensured that India’s dairy sector continues to expand because of a rising demand for quality products. The sector is giving ample opportunities to entrepreneurs keen on a career in dairying.

The author is an agri researcher/journalist and consultant with Verghese Kurien Centre of Excellence, Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Gujarat

Operation Flood and the anand pattern

• Milk production in the country was stagnant during the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. Late Verghese Kurien, also known as the father of the White Revolution that helped India achieve self-sufficiency in milk production, wrote in his autobiography I Too Had a Dream: “Our dairy industry was struggling to survive. Things were beginning to look grim.” Imports of dairy commodities were often resorted to in the 1950s and 1960s.
• Following the visit of the then PM Lal Bahadur Shastri to Anand in 1964, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was created in 1965 with a mandate to support creation of ‘Anand pattern’ dairy cooperatives across the country through Operation Flood (OF) which was to be implemented in three phases (1970-96). Kurien, the first chairman of NDDB, launched the project that envisaged organisation of cooperatives in milksheds from where milk produced and procured by cooperatives would be transported to cities. OF helped in supplying quality milk to consumers across 700 towns and cities. After OF, the Indian dairy and animal husbandry sector, which currently contributes around 4.2% of the national GDP, emerged as a primary source of income for about 70 million rural households — mostly landless, small or marginal farmers.

Global food

World Milk Day (June 1) was established by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations in 2001 to recognise the importance of milk as a global food. While celebrating this day, the benefits of milk and dairy products are promoted around the world, including how dairy supports the livelihoods of one billion people.

Themes of World Milk Day 2020

• Good food, health and nutrition
• Farmers caring for their communities, land and animals
• Sustainability practices in the dairy sector
• How dairying contributes to economic development, livelihoods

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