India is the world's largest milk producing country and this has been possible due to
the role played by dairy cooperatives in India, especially the Operation Flood and
Amul brand of GCMMF have contributed a great deal in ushering the white
revolution in India. The dairy sector was also liberalized in 1991 along with the overall
liberalization measures of the government. However, the government soon realized that the
sector was not yet ready for the opening up and any such liberalization measures would
affect the lives of millions of small farmers. Therefore the government retraced its steps
and notified the Milk and Milk Products Order (MMPO) in June 1992. This order
contained directives for ensuring the regional balance of milk supply and the continuous
supply of fresh liquid milk to the consumers at reasonable rates. Thus more or less
the government did not initiate further any significant steps to open up the dairy sector
till 1997. In 1998, the then Agriculture Minister SomPal introduced the proposals to
amend the MMPO to bring in new investment in the diary sector. The other measures
introduced this year included contract farming schemes, providing benefits to the
manufacturers who created backward linkages and the excise duty was also shelved over the
processed dairy products. This process continued and in 2002 the then Finance Minister
Yashwant Sinha removed the last protection measure available to the dairy sector, namely,
the milk shed concept. All along, the dairy cooperatives have been trying to
reposition themselves in the new scenario. While many diary cooperatives operated on a
small scale, GCMMF, which has an international brand Amul, was most affected by
the liberalization measures. GCMMF is India's largest food products organization, it is a
state level apex body of milk cooperatives in
Gujarat which aims at providing remunerative
returns to the farmers and also to serve the interest
of the consumers by providing quality products which are good value for
money.It all started in December 1946 with a small group of farmers keen to free themselves
from intermediaries, gain direct access to markets and, thereby, ensure maximum
returns for their efforts. Based in the village of Anand, the Kaira District Milk Cooperative
Union expanded exponentially. Today GCMMF is a federation of 12 district cooperative
milk producers union spread across the whole of Gujarat. There are 2.5 million
producer members, 11,962 village level societies and the total milk handling capacity is
9.91 million liters per day. GCMMF has achieved a sales of Rs. 37,736 mn in 2005-06. It
stands out as an example of how cooperatives can become a source of social change
affecting the lives of the poorest of the poor and at the same time competing and standing out
as one of the best in the dairy sector.
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