World Milk Day - an occasion to rejoice success, chart future growth
Trivandrum / May 29, 2024
Every year, June 1 is observed as World Milk Day, emphasising the pre-eminence of milk and dairy products as the vital and affordable nutritious component in the daily diet of people. The theme for this year is ‘vital role of dairy in delivering quality nutrition to nourish the world.’
In India, dairy farming has been a time-honoured occupation with a civilisational resonance. It is a matter of immense pride that India is now the world’s largest producer of milk, accounting for 24.64 pc of the total global production.
For this commendable achievement, we owe much to the path-breaking projects like White Revolution and the Operation Flood. The seminal contributions of pioneers of cooperative dairy movement like Shri Tribhuvandas Patel and the father of India’s White Revolution, Dr. Verghese Kurien were especially significant in this remarkable journey.
Also, it is important to acknowledge the immense contributions of millions of farmers across the country on this occasion. The strides that India made in the dairy sector have, in turn, brought about a qualitative socio-economic transformation across the country, especially in the rural areas.
The growth of the dairy sector in Kerala has been inextricably linked with the history of the Kerala Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (KCMMF), known by the brand Milma. Inspired by the model created by Dr Verghese Kurien, KCMMF has over the decades evolved as one of India’s largest dairy cooperative networks.
To cut a long story short, Milma has now over 12 lakh dairy farmers affiliated to its network of around 3300 primary milk cooperative societies, organised under three regional unions---Malabar, Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram. In the month of April 2024, Milma procured an average 10.31 lakhs litres of milk a day, while the sales stood at 17.56 lakh litres a day. Going forward, our focus will be on attaining self-sufficiency in milk production to meet the entire demand.
Milma has been able to make significant growth in the last couple of years, posting a higher turnover of Rs. 4,311 crores in 2023-24. This is despite the grim challenges triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic in recent time.
“Repositioning Milma”, the brand makeover initiative launched by Milma last year has been a critical component in this sterling performance. This initiative saw the launch of a variety of new products like chocolates, butter biscuits and ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat instant mixes besides standardising the price, quality and packaging of liquid milk, curd and other dairy staples from the three regional unions. This process has imparted a big thrust to the market expansion of Milma.
Milma received a series of honours and acclaims last year, in recognition of its contributions to the country’s dairy sector and the success of its initiatives. These include such coveted honours as being recognised for procuring the best quality milk; award for meritorious performance as a dairy federation; award for energy conservation award, being acclaimed as India’s first dairy federation to implement an insurance cover to mitigate climate change impact, and last but not the least, the Prime Minister’s mention for popularising Ayurveda-based veterinary medicines.
The unstinted support of the state government has been a major source of strength for Milma in all its upfront initiatives, including the farmers’ welfare programmes and market expansion projects.
Milma provides the highest milk procurement price to farmers despite the fact that the dairy sector in Kerala incurs the highest input cost. This calls for formulation of effective measures to reduce the input cost while attempting to increase productivity to achieve self-sufficiency in milk production.
Milma’s strength and reputation are built on two strong pillars--- its complete commitment to the dairy farmers and the tremendous goodwill of customers, comprising largely of millions of households. Even during the most critical times, Milma had ensured that the farmers received a high remunerative price for their output. Similarly, the demands of the customers for high quality liquid milk and dairy products have been met unfailingly.
The dairy cooperative movement in India has been built on the principle of cooperative federalism. Unfortunately, there has been attempts by certain quarters to tamper with these founding ideals by indulging in unfair practices. As chairman of Milma, I have red-flagged such deleterious tendencies by taking up the issue at relevant national forums. Our stand has received positive response from the vast majority of stakeholders.
This is a day to celebrate as well as to chart the future course. We cannot afford to rest on the laurels of our achievements. We need to add scale and speed to our growth, in a sustainable and inclusive fashion. Enhancing productivity is the key to future growth. The supply chain needs to be strengthened. Also, we need to promote best global practices to consolidate and build further on our achievements.
ENDS
