Rajkot dairy takes ATM to doorstep of milk producers

RAJKOT: Dairy farmers in interior villages of Rajkot will no longer have to spend hours visiting a bank branch or hunting ATMs, often located kilometers away, for cash withdrawals.
Gopal dairy, a member union of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) that markets brand Amul has started micro ATM facilities for fourteen milk co-operative societies in those villages where there is no banking facility.
These milk producers can withdraw cash from their village in three days of the month now. The facility was inaugurated at Anandpara village of Rajkot taluka. The district dairy union deposits the milk procurement price paid to milk producers in their accounts. But bank branches are often around 10 km far from their villages.
The secretary of village co-operative society will be given a small machine like PoS (point of sale) terminal, similar to the machines that banking correspondents use. The account holder can deposit or withdraw money through this machine using a debit card or Aadhar card linked with the bank account.
“We have received requests from 37 other cooperative societies to start this facility. We will replicate it after the success of this project. We will provide this facility to only those villages where the bank branch and ATM is 8 to 10 km far,” said Gopal dairy’s managing director Vinod Vyas.
There are 890 milk co-operative societies in Rajkot, Morbi, Junagadh and Amreli districts under the milk shed area of Gopal dairy. Out of that 600 have banking facilities in their villages. Nearly 45,000 milk producers are attached with this dairy union that collects an average of 4.50 lakh litre milk per day.