India has emerged from a dairy deficient country to the leading milk producer in the world today, with estimated production of milk in 2018-19 at 187 million tonnes. According to a survey, 23 per cent of agricultural households depend on livestock as their principal source of income. Dairy industry has thus emerged as one of the key alternatives available to the Indian farmer. As per Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairy, India ranks first among the world’s milk producing nations since 1998 and has the largest bovine (cow, buffalo, etc) population in the world. Milk production in India during the period 1950-51 was 17 million tonnes, which has gone up to 187 million tonnes in 2019-20. This phenomenal success is attributed to the head start given by programmes such as ‘Operation Flood’ during 1970–1996, which focused on dairy development activities.
How Amul started and expanded
Amul is a dairy cooperative, based at Anand in the state of Gujarat. Formed in 1946, it is a cooperative brand managed by a cooperative body, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), which today is jointly owned by 3.6 million milk producers in Gujarat. Amul spurred India's White Revolution, which made India the world's largest producer of milk and milk products. Kaira District Milk Union Limited (later renamed to Amul) was founded in 1946 through the efforts of Tribhuvandas Patel, Dr Verghese Kurien and H. M. Dalaya. Amul's foundation was a significant contributor to the white revolution in India.
Tribhuvandas under the guidance of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel became the founding chairman of the organization and led it until his retirement in 70s. He hired Kurien in 1949. He convinced Kurien to stay and help with the mission. Under the chairmanship of Tribhuvandas, Kurien was initially the general manager and helped guide the technical and marketing efforts of Amul. Kurien was the chairman of Amul briefly after Tribhuvandas died in 1994. Kurien, founder-chairman of the GCMMF for more than 30 years (1973–2006), is credited with the success of Amul's marketing.
The Amul plant at Anand
Amul cooperative was registered on 19 December 1946 as a response to the exploitation of marginal milk producers by traders and agents in small cities. Angered by the unfair trade practices, the farmers of Kaira approached Sardar Patel under the leadership of Tribhuvandas. He advised them to form a cooperative (Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union). In 1946, the milk farmers of the area went on a strike which led to the setting up of the cooperative to collect and process milk. Cooperatives were formed for each village, too. By June 1948, the KDCMPUL had started pasteurising milk.
With Kurien's help, the process was expanded on a commercial scale which led to the first modern dairy of the cooperative at Anand. The trio's (Patel, Kurien and Dalaya's) success at the cooperative's dairy soon spread to Anand's neighbourhood in Gujarat. Within a short span, five unions in other districts – Mehsana, Banaskantha, Baroda, Sabarkantha and Surat – were set up. In 1970, it spearheaded the White Revolution of India. To combine forces and expand the market while saving on advertising and avoid competing against each other, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., an apex marketing body of these district cooperatives, was set up in 1973. The Kaira Union, which had the brand name Amul with it since 1955, transferred it to GCMMF. The GCMMF is the largest food products marketing organisation of India. It is the apex organisation of the dairy cooperatives of Gujarat. It is the exclusive marketing organisation for products under the brand name of Amul and Sagar. Over the last five and a half decades, dairy cooperatives in Gujarat have created an economic network that links more than 3.1 million village milk products with millions of consumers in India.
