?Amul increases farmers' income by four-fold in seven years
?Amul increases farmers' income by four-fold in seven years

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF), which markets the popular Amul brand of milk and dairy products, has successfully quadrupled the income of its dairy farmers by four times in last seven years.

During the last seven years, Amul’s milk procurement prices to its farmer-members more than doubled from Rs. 24.30 per litre for buffalo milk (Rs. 337 per kg fat) in 2009-10 to Rs. 49 per litre (Rs. 680 per kg fat) in 2016-17. Since the cooperative’s total milk procurement also doubled during this period, from 90.9 lakh litres per day to 176.5 lakh litres per day, this effectively increased the income of its dairy farmers, four-fold in the last seven years.

Results of the apex body of dairy cooperatives in Gujarat were declared on 15thJune 2017, in the 43rd Annual General Meeting of GCMMF.

GCMMF aims to achieve a business turnover of Rs. 50000 crore and become the largest FMCG organization in India by 2020-21. In the long-term, Amul claims to establish itself as the largest dairy organization in the world, rising up from its current ranking of thirteenth largest dairy organization to number one.

Jethabhai Patel, Chairman, GCMMF, said, "During the last seven years, our milk procurement has witnessed a phenomenal increase of 96%. This enormous growth was a result of the high milk procurement price paid to our farmer-members which has increased by 102% in this period. This highly remunerative price has helped us retain the farmers’ interest in milk production. Better returns from dairying have motivated them to enhance their investments in increasing milk production."

He added, "The drive towards digital and cashless payments, which received a huge boost thanks to Government of India’s demonetization initiative, has brought about significant benefits to our farmers in rural Gujarat. We have actively helped our farmer-members to open bank accounts and have linked an additional 13 lakh farmers’ bank accounts to our system. Now, milk payments are cashless and directly transferred into their bank accounts."

Jethabhai Bharwad, Vice-Chairman, GCMMF, said, "Our digitalization drive has brought in complete transparency in payment to milk producer members. Farmer-members are aware of the exact amount due to them and the rationale behind the same. Payments going directly into their bank accounts also helps inculcate the savings habit in them. The need for an active bank account has brought large number of the Amul family farmer households directly into the formal banking network.Automated Milk Collection Systems installed at village dairy cooperative societieshave now been linked through common online software applications. This helps to further enhance transparency among producer members using digital technology."

R S Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF, said, "Amul’s success has been driven by its ‘3E’mantra – Rapid expansion in milk procurement, rapid expansion in manufacturing facilities and rapid expansion in marketing & distribution network. "

 
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