Impressed by the spectacular success of
the Amul
pattern, and keen to have it extended all over the
country, prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri set up in
1965 the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), with
Dr Verghese Kurien as its chairman. Dr Kurien drove the
globally recognised Operation
Flood from 1970 to 1996, and handed over the reins
of this institution to his successor Dr Amrita Patel in
1998.
NDDB was constituted under the National Dairy Development
Board Act, 1987, and enjoys the status of a Public Financial
Institution (PFI) and an institute of national importance.
It was created to promote, finance and support producer-owned
and controlled organisations. NDDB's programmes and activities
seek to strengthen farmer cooperatives and support national
policies that are favourable to the growth of such institutions.
Fundamental to NDDB's efforts are cooperative principles
and the Amul
pattern of cooperation.
NDDB succeeded in replacing exploitation with empowerment,
tradition with modernity, stagnation with growth, transforming
dairying into an instrument for the development of India's
farmers. That success combined the wisdom and energy of
farmers with professional management to successfully capture
markets for liquid milk and milk product while supporting
farmer's investment with inputs and services.
From the beginning, NDDB had planned and spearheaded
India's dairy programmes by placing dairy development
in the hands of milk producers and the professionals
it employs to manage the cooperatives. In addition,
NDDB also promotes other commodity-based cooperatives,
allied industries and veterinary biologicals on an intensive
and nation-wide basis. NDDB has leveraged the capabilities
of milk marketing federations and milk producers' cooperative
unions to bring high quality services and modern technology
to the service of rural India.
The primary focus of NDDB's concerns are:
- Animal breeding
- Cooperative development and governance
- Engineering
- Product and process technology
- Research and development
- Biotechnology
- Training and consultancy
Achievements of dairy cooperatives
at a glance:
Reach:
- The dairy cooperative network
includes170 milk unions
- Operates in over 338 districts
- Covers nearly 108,574 village
level cooperatives
- Is owned by nearly 12-million
farmer members
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 per cent 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
class cities including metros and some 550 smaller
towns
- During the last decade, the daily milk supply to
each 1,000 urban consumers has increased from 17.5
to 52.0 litres
Innovation:
- Bulk-vending, saving money and the environment
- Milk travels as far as 2,200 kilometers to deficit
areas, carried by innovative rail and road milk tankers
- Ninety-five per cent of dairy equipment is produced
in India, saving valuable foreign exchange
Macro impact:
- The annual value of India's milk production amounts
to about Rs880 billion
- Dairy cooperatives generate employment opportunities
for some 12-million farm families
Compiled by Shubha Khandekar
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