Cattle class
It’s a perishable commodity, but with right investment in infrastructure, proper organisation and proper training, milk may help shaping up many enduring dreams

By MEHA
In 1949, it was a reluctant Verghese Kurien who landed at a non-descript railway station of an unheard of town called Anand in Gujarat, to take up a job at a government creamery. He had agreed to join the post only because the Government had given him a warning. The British Government had sent him for a scholarship to Michigan State University in 1946, irrespective of his reluctance. For he had wanted to study nuclear physics or metallurgy, but the Government had sent him to study Dairy Engineering, when he didn’t even know what pasteurisation was. When he returned after his scholarship, India had gained independence, his Uncle John Mathai was the country’s finance minister, but that didn’t stop the Government from being upright about rules - go for the posting or return the entire scholarship amount. Only because he didn’t have the money to pay back, did he join the government job in Anand.

He soon got hooked on to the place. No, not to his own job, but to a neighbouring operation, which was a small cooperative movement — Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Limited (KDCMPUL) — started at the behest of Sardar Patel and Morarji Desai, and being run by a Congress leader called Tribhuvandas. Kurien started helping them with machinery, and within a few months, got so involved, that he joined them full-time, as General Manager. The rest, as they say, is history. With his zeal and never-say-die attitude, Kurien, along with his team, went on to create institutions of national importance such as Amul, NDDB and IRMA, during his 60 years of association with the ‘Milk Capital of India’ - Anand. During his long stint at the helm of dairy movement, the country not only became self-sufficient in milk and milk products, it has become the leading producer of milk as well, with Operation Flood. It has taken not only technical prowess, but also thought and imagination to turn a disadvantage into a winning situation.

White woes
Well, while leaders and visionaries emerge as a result of strange circumstances, as Kurien’s life demonstrates, let’s look at what cadres does the dairy industry require, for what functions and what levels. But before that, let’s strive to understand the industry first. Milk is a highly perishable commodity, even more than vegetables, and needs to be delivered to consumers at the earliest, to prevent wastage. Technology intervention is therefore a must, to give it a longer life, and also to convert it into more durable products. It also suffers from a peculiar problem that its production and its demand are not on the same scale. For example, in summers, milk production goes down but the city population needs milk anyhow. Hence the need for technology props up again, to convert excess milk produced in winters, for consumption in summers. Besides being highly perishable, it is also prone to infections. If at any stage of production or processing, germs enter the milk, or if the cattle are ill, it can affect the consumer segment as well. There is thus the need to produce milk in highly sanitised condition. Also, milk needs to travel distance, thus the need for some form of cold storage, and special vehicles to deliver the milk.

Given these constraints, India banked heavily on imports in the early years of independence. It was because although the local suppliers - the doodhwalas - catered to individual buyers; the organised market was still dominated by the dairy companies from advanced countries like New Zealand. Within India, companies like Polson dominated the requirements of the Urban markets for milk and milk products.

Milkyway
The first organised intervention happened with KDCMPUL, which became popularly known as Amul in 1957. Amul organised dairy farmers into cooperatives, wherein they supply milk to the cooperatives at the village level, and the milk would then be sent to the processing plant. The ownership of the cooperatives would hence vest with the dairy farmers. Seeing the success of this cooperative movement in Gujarat, the model was to be replicated all over India, and with the vision to replicate Anands throughout the country, the National Dairy Development Board was formed. As a result, we have milk cooperatives throughout the country. But this is not to say that the entire milk production is organised into cooperatives. Private sector involvement, as well as the role of unorganised, local milkmen, is also significant. Dr A. K. Srivastava, Director, National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal, says, “The numbers of dairy cooperative societies, which have crossed one lakh mark (1, 28,799), still procure only 7.2 per cent of the total milk produced in the country which is about 50 per cent of the milk procured by the organised sector of milk marketing. Private plants procure the rest.

The role of dairy cooperatives in milk marketing has been appreciable in the past but it is facing tough competition in terms of procurement price and marketing cost from the private plants and the milk suppliers. The picture that Dr Srivastava draws clearly states that in an era of liberalisation, private sector is increasingly going to vie for its share in the milk market, and there is simply no wishing it away, unlike the pre-liberation era cooperative scenario.

For a finished product
Be it cooperative sector or private sector, given the perishable nature of milk as a commodity, it requires processing in a highly scientific and hygienic manner. This in turn requires training.

Dr N.S. Rathore, Professor and Dean, College of Dairy and Food Science Technology, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture & Technology, Udaipur, describing the need for training in milk production and processing, says, “India is otherwise known as the ‘The Oyster’ of the global dairy industry, with opportunities that galore to the entrepreneurs globally. Anyone might want to capitalise on the largest and the fastest growing milk and milk products. The liberalised economy provides more opportunities for MNCs and foreign investors to release the full potential of this industry. Such an overgrowing industry requires skilled labourers in terms of knowledge related to milk and its importance as an important food ingredient, animal physiology and needs, machines and equipments and quality specifications.”

Dairy programmes are offered at undergraduate and postgraduate level, as BSc programmes, BTech and MTech programmes and now, diploma programmes too are available. Dairy technology colleges, and agricultural universities largely offer these courses. Dr Srivastava informs that there are 19 dairy science colleges that offer courses in dairy technology and related disciplines.

A major role in research and development is played by NDRI, which has developed series of new technology innovations in different areas of dairy production, processing and management. As Dr Srivastava informs, “One of the primary goals of the institute is for human resource development and to provide R&D support towards generation and dissemination of knowledge for development of national milch herd, milk production enhancement with greater productivity of dairy industry and upliftment of dairy profession.” At present, NDRI is awarding degrees of B.Tech (Dairy Technology), M.Tech, M.VSc., MSc and PhD in 12 disciplines of dairy science. Students passing out of the dairy technology colleges, as well as NDRI, would be meeting the requirements of the processing plants, where highly technical processes like pasteurisation, conversion to milk powder, manufacturing of baby food, production of butter, ghee, and other milk products, quality control, and research and development on quality of cattle, better cattle feed, disease control and animal health would be taking place. Some would also be specialising in marketing of these products, and yet another set would be gaining expertise in the financial aspect. The question that may strike one here is, what training inputs go into constituting the lowest end of the spectrum, and what constitutes the important beginning step - the dairy farmer? After all, milk production happens in a dairy farmers hut only, and it is important that primary producer knows the importance of hygiene, animal health and disease prevention along with the use of new implements in milk procurement, cost of milk, and other related issues. Is any training happening at that level?

Thankfully, dairy farmers are being increasingly brought within the ambit of skill development, largely through ‘awareness programmes’. Dr. Rathore says that State Agricultural / Veterinary Universities and State Dairy Development Federation offer short-term awareness programme for the personnel engaged in the production and processing of milk on small scale. In addition to these programmes, distance education in dairying has also been started especially for the working people who wish to enhance their qualification or for those who are interested in starting the dairy business. He adds, “Several awareness programmes are arranged at the village level by the NGO, government organisations and agricultural universities in order to manage dairy farms as scientific lines, to produce clean milk and manufacture various value added milk products on domestic/ small scale and to encourage entrepreneurship among the rural youth.

Indira Gandhi National Open University has also started awareness programmes for dairy farmers. It has already conducted these programmes in Rajasthan and Bihar, and plans to take it to other states. Prof Hansra of the School of Agriculture at IGNOU informs that the programmes are very comprehensive, and cover all aspects of milk production. “Upon attending the programme and going through our material, a person would gain a good understanding of the field,” he says. Its course material, published in both Hindi and English, covers aspects like animal health, hygiene of the cow pen, including disposal of cow dung, cattle feed production of milk, use of various implements, testing and storage of milk, accounts and organisation of dairy industry. Besides focussing on quality of milk and milk products, the personnel involved at all levels, right from policy makers in Krishi Bhavan to the dairy farmer, also need to constantly probe what role will a small unit play in this currently fragmented industry. Can Dr Kurien’s life-long effort of mobilising individual suppliers in the cooperative chain endure the pressures of a globalised economy? Will the farmer get his due if he supplies to a big or small private setup? And will it be feasible for him to cater to urban/semi urban clientele on his own? It’s a question of both individual dairy farmer’s well being, as well as nation’s standing in the world dairy market, both causes being equally dear to the Grandfather of Indian dairy Industry.

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