Medium-sized milk dairies with capacity reaching 10,000 litres per day are coming up in rural areas by forging tie-ups with major dairies to stabilise and enhance livelihoods involved in cattle rearing and milk production in villages.
The Kamadhenu Milk Dairy, which came up at Dharmavaram village in Nellore district four years ago, was one developed by young graduates hailing from the village with the sole purpose of networking residents of surrounding villages to optimise opportunities in the industry.
For supplementary income, small and marginal farmers and poor households rear cattle traditionally.
Sometimes, it becomes a major source of their livelihoods.
M. Krishna Reddy, incharge of the unit, said there had been a very good response from the farmers and, in just four years, they could increase their milk collection from 4,000 litres per day initially to nearly 6,000 litres now. In peak seasons, they collect up to 8,000 litres.
Strong bridge
These medium units are acting as a strong bridge between the major dairy units and milk producers. Kamadhenu has associated with Elaine Dairy and supplies milk to it on a daily basis.
The Kamadhenu unit has a huge ice cooling storage tanker for raw milk collected from the farmers. Within a few hours of this storage, the milk would be taken away by major dairies in their tankers.
Auto service
To make their services friendly to villagers, they have arranged autorickshaws to lift milk from the doorsteps of the farmers.
Transparent fat testing, reasonable price and prompt payments are what the farmers would like to continue their patronage.
The Kamadhenu unit has now got clients from nearly 2,000 farmers’ households in all surrounding villages like Kothapalem, Chennuru, Badugulapadu, Bitragunta and so on.