The talk was of 1946 when India was a milk deficit country. At that time we need to import milk from New Zealand. It was the time when Indian farmers were very frustrated with there jobs because the main reason was they didn't get the exact value of there milk. At that time they need to travel a lot for selling their milk after that also they not earning enough amount of money they need for their survival.
At that time Tribhuvan Das Patel was very frustrated so to discuss his problem he meet Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel the result of the meeting was they decided to form a cooperative.
That time Gujrat's farmers decided to form a cooperation against Polson company ( British company). After sometime Dr.Verghese Kurien ( Father Of White Revolution In India) joined this cooperation.
After that, both Tribhuvan Das Patel and Dr.Verghese Kurien decided to run this cooperation. In starting 10 years both them made a very strong foundation and repeated process because of that the dairy farmers with only one cow at that time they bought 30-40 more cows and they earned as much which they never expected.
Only because of this movement now we are the largest milk producer in the world. There was a philosophy behind it Value For Many =Value For Money.
Amul runs on 3 steps:- 1. Milk Procurement 2. Milk Processing 3. Milk Packaging.
The total cost incurred in these steps are 15%. But now the game-changing point is how Amul beats other FMCG companies. Normally the cost incurred as distribution cost was 30% for other FMCG companies but that distribution cost Amul manages in 5%.
The Amul Model of dairy development
In 1964, the then PM of India Lal Bahadur Shastri decided that the same approach should become the basis of the National Dairy Development Policy. Lal Bahadur Shastri understood that the success of Amul Dairy could be attributed to four basic factors. Firstly, the farmers owned the dairy. Secondly, their elected representatives managed the village societies and the district unions. Thirdly, the farmers were the ones who employed professionals to operate the dairy and manage its business, And last but not the least, the cooperative was sensitive towards the needs of farmers and responsive to their demands.
The next year, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri tasked Kurien to replicate the dairy’s Anand pattern nationwide and this was how the world’s largest dairy development programme known as ‘Operation Flood’ was born. This replicated the success of the ‘Amul Model’ in other parts of the country.
The Amul Model of dairy development is a three-tiered structure with the dairy cooperative societies at the village level federated under a milk union at the district level and a federation of member unions at the state level.
The model has been known to empower thousands of village women, who benefit at the grass-root level by selling milk to Amul. Amul claims that its model helps women gain economic independence.
This ‘Amul model’ has helped India emerge as the largest producer of milk in the world. More than 16 million milk producers pour in their produce in 185903 dairy cooperatives societies in the country. Their milk is processed in 222 District-Cooperative Milk Unions and marketed by 28 state marketing federation.