Dairy farmers’ income to rise 20% in 5 years through circular economy: Amit Shah
Amit Shah inaugurated Banas Dairy’s new Bio-CNG and fertiliser plant and laid the foundation stone for a 150-tonne milk powder facility in Vav-Tharad in Gujarat
Ahmedabad: Union home cooperation minister Amit Shah on Saturday said the Centre will use the cooperative model pioneered in Banaskantha to build a national circular dairy economy that will raise farmers’ incomes by at least 20% in the next five years. He was speaking in Vav-Tharad in Gujarat after inaugurating Banas Dairy’s new Bio-CNG and fertiliser plant and laying the foundation stone for a 150-tonne milk powder facility.
Shah said the tradition started by Galbabhai Nanjibhai Patel, who founded Banas Dairy in Banaskantha, had grown into a ₹24,000-crore enterprise built by women and farmers of the district. He said Asia’s largest milk-producing dairy had shown how an institution created in 1960 by eight village societies across Vadgam and Palanpur could transform an entire region. The union minister said the system of weekly payments directly into bank accounts had given women a central role in the growth of the dairy sector. Shah is on a three-day visit to Gujarat from December 5 to December 7.
“Our cooperative dairies have achieved tremendous success in procuring milk from farmers and returning the income generated through milk product sales. Now is the time to embrace the circular economy model. Farmers will receive their share of the income generated by the dairy through the sale of biogas and fertilizer produced from cattle dung procured from them,” Shah told the gathering today.
He further said that a concrete plan for the implementation of this circular economy model across the country will emerge from the meeting of MPs in Banaskantha in the evening.
“The entire endeavor of milk collection has been accomplished through the dedicated efforts of the sisters, daughters, and mothers of Banaskantha. These women have set forth the most vibrant and powerful living example before all the NGOs across the world that advocate for women’s empowerment. Such a transparent system has been established that, without any protests or slogans, the complete payment for their milk is directly deposited into the bank accounts of these mothers and sisters every week,” said Shah.
He said drought once forced farmers in this region to work as labourers, but the Sujalam-Sufalam scheme and diversion of surplus Narmada and Mahi water under Prime Minister Narendra Modi changed the district’s economic base.
Shah said around 250 chairmen and managing directors of dairies from across India will visit Banaskantha in January to study the cooperative model. He paid tribute to B.R. Ambedkar on his death anniversary, and noted that the padyatra marking Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s 150th birth anniversary had concluded today. He said the idea of cooperation itself came from Patel and had taken deep root in Gujarat.
“Apart from the usual milk products like paneer and curd, there are many products that are in demand across the globe, but they are not produced in India. If we focus on those products, dairy farmers can earn extra income,” he said.
Farmers who once grew a single crop now grow three a year, Shah said, adding that he had asked two universities to document the water-linked transformation in Banaskantha and Mehsana so that it becomes part of the national record of rural development.
He said Banas Dairy’s new Bio-CNG, milk powder, protein and automated paneer plants would become a template for cooperatives across the country. He said not a gram of dung should go to waste and that biogas, bio-CNG, electricity and organic manure must become new income streams for livestock farmers. He said he had handed the Amul chairman a list of high-value dairy products that India does not yet manufacture and asked for immediate production.
He said cooperative dairies across India will now produce their own animal feed instead of purchasing it from the open market, with the earnings going directly to farmers. Technology and financing for this shift have already been arranged by the Centre, according to Shah.
Shah said the Union government has formed three national-level cooperatives for seeds, organic products and agricultural exports, along with three new multi-state cooperatives for the dairy sector. He said these institutions together will cover activities ranging from cheese, protein and dairy whitener to honey, edible oil packaging, cold storage, potato processing, seed production and animal feed, with profits reaching livestock farmers.
“Our government has created three cooperatives for the agriculture sector and three for the dairy sector. I want to assure you that the circular economy will increase dairy farmers’ income by 20% in the next five years,” he said.
Shah said village milk cooperatives have been equipped with micro-ATMs, which have eased handling of frozen semen and will later support financial services. He said White Revolution 2.0 will be driven by the National Gokul Mission, the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund, the restructured National Dairy Plan and the National Animal Disease Control Programme.
Shah said the cooperative model nurtured in Banaskantha will spread across India and strengthen the incomes of millions of livestock farmers.
