Came across this article talking about very interesting innovations that should be replicated across India.

NDDB managed Saurashtra – Kutch dairy’s milk procurement reaches 5.5 lakh litre milestone


Tuesday, February 2, 2010

National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) managed Saurashtra-Kutch Dairy’s milk procurement has reached a milestone of 5.5 lakh litres per day. Sixty thousand milk producers are pouring milk from fourteen hundred villages of Junagadh, Surendranagar, Amreli, Kutch, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar and Porbandar districts.

As per the mandate given by the Government of Gujarat, NDDB refurbished and upgraded Junagadh Dairy in the first phase to initiate the process of promoting New Generation Cooperatives in Saurashtra and Kutch region. The processing capacity of the dairy plant is being expanded from 3 lakh litres per day to 6 lakh litres per day and a new 30 tonne powder plant is being set up as a part of the process.

Innovative practices have been introduced like electronic transfer of information on quality and quantity of milk tested in the presence of pourer members at village level to a central billing unit in the dairy. Payment is then made directly into the bank account of each pourer member. Members have been provided biometric cards and payment is made to individual pourer member at the village level using biometric cards. Milk producers are exhibiting a growing confidence in this system.

Productivity enhancement services like Artificial Insemination, feeding and veterinary services have been initiated. These services would be extended to the entire area in future.