A gendered assessment of the Mulukanoor Women’s Cooperative
Dairy value chain, Telangana, India
Kumara Swamya, Michael Blümmela, Jean-Joseph Cadilhonb, Kathleen Earl Colversonb,
Yerradoddi Ramana Reddya, Thanammal Ravichandrana
a
International Livestock Research Institute, ICRISAT campus, Patancheru, Telangana,
502324, India
b
International Livestock Research Institute, Box 30709, 00100 Nairobi, Kenya
Abstract
Set up in 2002, the Mulukanoor Women’s Cooperative Dairy currently procures milk from
21,000 smallholder dairy producers; all its members are women. Its dairy processing capacity
is 100,000 L/day; its current production only reaches 65,000 L/day. Responding to new
consumer demands provides an opportunity to increase its milk production and profits
through three pathways: increasing milk yields of its current members; increasing its milksupplying membership by spreading into new collection areas; diversifying its product
portfolio into dairy sweets. A gendered value chain assessment was undertaken to understand
better the current members’ dairy value chain while also studying that of non-member dairy
farmers. Using focus group discussions with farmers and individual interviews with dairy
processers and traders in Karimnagar District of Telangana State, India, this study collected
viewpoints from the cooperative’s current women suppliers, men and women producers in
dairy villages outside the cooperative’s milkshed, and from milk and dairy sweet traders. The
qualitative data collected were compiled and analyzed to identify the constraints faced by the
actors involved in the dairy value chains; quantitative data from traders were analyzed using
descriptive statistics functions of Microsoft Excel. The main result from this gendered value
chain assessment is that women and men dairy producers in the cooperative’s current milk
collection area seem to have equivalent levels of ownership and access to assets and incomes.
The most efficient way to increase the cooperative’s production, and thus profits and women
members’ dividends, would be to open its membership to men within the current milkshed
rather than enrolling more women producers from other areas.
Keywords: Gender, Value chain, Dairy, Cooperative, India
Acknowledgements: This work was undertaken as part of the CGIAR Research Program on
Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) led by the International Food Policy Research
Institute (IFPRI). Funding support for this study was provided by the CGIAR Research
Program on Livestock and Fish and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions,
and Markets. This paper has gone through the standard peer-review procedure of the Asian
Society of Agricultural Economics. The opinions expressed here belong to the authors, and
do not necessarily reflect those of PIM, IFPRI, or CGIAR.
1. Introduction
India is the largest milk producing country in the world with highest cattle and buffalo
population; it has increased its milk production from 17 million tons in the 1960s to 124
million tons in 2012 (FAOSTAT). India’s milk production accounts for 17% of the global
output and per capita availability of milk is 276 g/day, which is above the value
recommended by WHO. Livestock keeping has a significant role on the lives of almost all
people of the country either directly or indirectly. It may be as a main source of income, as an
additional source of income; in particular rearing cows is seen as a traditional or auspicious
activity. Consumption of milk and milk based products is very common as part of daily diet
in one or other form by almost all people in India. 40-42% of households are lactovegetarians in India (Mehta et al 2003); milk products constitute their only source of animal
protein, therefore creating an important demand for dairy products inside the country. Thus,
the dairy sector is touching all sections of the people of the country daily.
Statistical data indicates that 90% of the dairy farmers owned below 2 hectares of
land, which includes landless (32%), marginal (47%) and small (11%) holders (NSS 2006). It
is recognized that these small farms play a major role in rural development and poverty
reduction (Lipton 2006). But small holdings face challenges on integration of value chains,
liberalization and globalization effects, market volatility and other risks and vulnerability,
adaptation of climate change, etc. (Thapa and Gaiha 2011). Poor bargaining power and lack
of capital investment are restricting their links with markets. In such cases, a collective way
of undertaking the same livelihood activity by pooling their little resources was believed to
brighten the chances of increased earnings from existing resources.
However, bringing their activities under the system of a “collective way of doing” is
the biggest challenge for development-oriented organizations in the country. One way of
doing this is through cooperative farming or cooperative agri-business.
1.1 History of cooperatives in India for dairy development
In India, there was a cooperative spirit since ancient times, but it was officially endorsed with
a government act only in 1904 with the name “Cooperatives Credit Societies Act 1904”.
Since then many cooperatives have come up, particularly in farming and allied sectors.
Cooperatives have played an important role in dairy development in India. In 1965, the
National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was set up to support milk cooperatives with
the object of meeting the increasing demand of milk, especially in urban areas, as well as
developing the rural economy through the enhancement of the milk production of the
country. In 1970, NDDB took up Operation Flood Programme in order to organize Milk
Producers Cooperative in several suitable places of India, considering Anand Milk Producers
Union Limited (AMUL) of Gujarat as a model with the above object in view.
Many studies have been done on the impact of the traditional cooperatives and
Operation Flood (OF) Programme on livelihood improvement and income distribution (Van
Acker 1978, Candler and Kumar 1998). Indeed, the OF programme created a remarkable
impact on the livelihood of dairy farmers and reduced dependency on commodity aid from
European countries and made them self-reliant (George 1988). But the replication of the
AMUL model did not yield similar results in all states of the country as the geographical and
socio-economic conditions were different (Doornbos et al. 1987, Bandyopadhyay 1996).
1.2 Gender roles in dairy farming and cooperative membership
According to FAO reports, women compose around two-thirds of the 400 million
poor livestock keepers who mainly depend on livestock for their income worldwide. This
economic activity of livestock rearing by women is not only helping them in their income
development, realizing their actual economic potential, and their empowerment in reducing
male dominance, but also in diminishing their risk from agriculture to a great extent.
One key component in dairy is that women play a key role in production and
management (World Bank 1991). In India, dairy related works are usually carried out by men
and women jointly. Nonetheless, women will undertake more numerous dairy activities than
men because they stay more at home than men. Low productivity of the animals, lack of
nutritious feed in sufficient quantity and at reasonable price, and low price for the milk are
the major constraints. Opportunities for dairy development lie in the ever growing demand
for milk with increased consciousness of its nutrition potential and increased purchasing
power of the people in general. A study reveals that incomes earned by women in dairy are
similar to men’s off-farm wages (Garcia et al. 2006); access to credit will enable women
farmers to access technologies and thus help them to cross the poverty line.
Studies on the impact of dairy cooperatives on women’s livelihood are very limited in
the literature. 72,000 dairy cooperatives are present in India and giving employment to 72
million farmers. Only 18% of the members of these are women. In mixed cooperatives, there
can be resistance to women becoming cooperative members as they are yet to be recognized
as farmers in their own right. Lack of ownership of land prevents women not only from
becoming members but also from obtaining credit, training, and technical assistance. Women
also do not have any say in the decision making policies of the cooperatives and thus cannot
help formulate policies to help themselves. Shareholding in the cooperatives is important for
women empowerment in dairy development. It is with this thought in mind that women-based
dairy cooperatives were established in India. There were 2,476 women only dairy
cooperatives in India in the 1980s (Dairy India 1983). This study has been done around the
women-based dairy cooperative Mulukanoor Women’s Cooperative Dairy (MWCD) in
Telangana state.
1.3 Background of Mulukanoor Women’s Cooperative Dairy (MWCD)
Mulukanoor Women’s Cooperative Dairy is located in Karimnagar district of
Telangana state (Fig. 1), the newly formed state from Andhra Pradesh on 2nd June 2014,
where marginal and small mixed crop-livestock farmers account for 89% of the households
with less than 2 ha of land (GoTelangana 2014). Agriculture in Andhra Pradesh and
Telangana are important economic activities but both states still suffer from high levels of
rural poverty. Bovines account for 41% of the total livestock population according to the
2007 livestock census in Andhra Pradesh, which included Telangana. MWCD, India’s first
women’s cooperative dairy has an inspirational background story, which itself is also based
on the cooperative spirit articulated by two local and one national level development
organization: Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF), Mulukanoor Cooperative Rural
Bank and Marketing Society (MCRBMS) and National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).
CDF began helping rural people to form Thrift Cooperatives (TCs) for men and
women at village levels in Warangal and Karimnagar districts of Telangana from the year
1990. A Thrift Cooperative is a voluntary association of individuals who come together to
meet their saving, credit and insurance needs and they formed an Association for Thrift
Cooperatives (ATC) with several TCs together. After 7 years of saving, the resulting huge
amount of savings from women TCs was disproportionate compared with very little demand
for credit; this led ATC to think about investing further their idle capital into a new venture
benefiting a majority of its members. Thus, they arrived to an idea of establishing a dairy
processing plant to make use of these funds. Indeed, dairy has comparative advantages over
all other ventures for the members of women cooperatives; there was also great demand for
quality milk in Warangal, the nearby city. CDF and NDDB had done a milk market survey
and measured the possible interest from the dairy farmers. Subsequently, ATC approached
Mulukanoor Cooperative Rural Bank and Marketing Society (MCRBMS) for the required
support to establish the dairy plant with a capacity of 25,000 Litres per Day (LPD). The plant
capacity was increased to 50,000 LPD in 2007 and has plans to expand its capacity to
100,000 LPD by 2015 to meet demand in the market. The Mulukanoor Women’s Cooperative
Dairy started its procurement operation on 17 August 2002 from 67 Women Dairy
Cooperative (WDC) societies. Now the number has reached 110 WDCs situated within a
radius of 25 km from MWCD.
1.4 Study objectives
MWCD is supplying the milk in the nearby city of Warangal with the brand name
“Swakrushi Milk” and the demand for its branded milk is increasing day by day so this
cooperative is also procuring milk from other channels like private traders and private
companies to meet the high demand. MWCD has approached the International Livestock
Research Institute (ILRI) for a supportive study to develop different business options to meet
the required volume of milk.
For this purpose, a gendered dairy value chain assessment was conducted to study the
existing situation by involving all actors of the dairy value chain such as milk producers, milk
traders and sweet manufacturing and selling people, managers of MWCD, and other milk
producing companies. The assessment is considered gendered because its primary objective
was to understand gender roles and relations between men and women in the dairy value
chains: differences in their needs, statuses, roles, capacities, constraints. The interpretation of
the significance of these differences for decision making in dairy chain management was the
objective of this report (Kumara Swamy et al. 2013).
2. Methodology
The assessment used Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and personal in-depth
interviews for data collection. The area has been divided into 3 agro ecological zones with
dominance of farming patterns of irrigated, mixed and rain fed system. For comparison, the
discussions were carried out in the current operational milk procurement area as well as in the
potential or prospective areas of MWCD. In the current operational area group discussions
were done with women only whereas in the prospective areas the discussions were done with
mixed gender groups.
In-depth interviews were conducted with milk traders and sweet manufacturers. Milk
traders’ data was collected from 12 male traders: six from the dairy’s existing procurement
area and six from the dairy’s prospective area. Out of these six traders of a particular area,
two traders were picked from the irrigated zone, two from the mixed zone and two from the
rain fed zone; the current limit of the dairy’s milkshed intersects with these three agroecological zones. All these traders are independently operating their milk business and in no
way linked to the MWCD. The identification of traders was carried out by taking the
addresses of other fellow traders known to the trader previously interviewed. All due care
was taken in selecting traders so that they are typical representatives of most traders of the
study area. No women milk trader was found in the entire study area. Six sweet
manufacturers were also selected by searching for prominent sweet shops in Warangal city.
3. Results and discussion
3.1 Gender-based characteristics of dairy activity in existing and prospective areas
Importance of dairy production for household income
In the existing dairy operational area, it was found that agriculture is the main income
source followed by dairying in irrigated area. In mixed and rain fed areas dairying is the main
income source followed by agriculture. In all the existing area, dairying activity has shown an
increasing trend. It is because of agriculture’s decrease due to drought conditions and thanks
to the setup of dairy cooperatives for women like MWCD.
In mixed and rain fed areas other professions like agricultural labor, beedi (local
cigarette) rolling, and working in government employment schemes are predominant among
women. According to participant women’s opinion, men in this agro-ecological zone are
more likely to find work as agricultural labor, hamalis (loading and unloading the grains in
market), working in ginning mills, construction work, etc. Women’s beedi rolling activity in
the mixed area and men’s construction activity in dry land areas have been on the decline in
the last 5 years.
In the prospective areas, dairying activity is in third position after agriculture and
agricultural labor for both men and women. Though dairying is in third position, it has
registered an increasing trend over the last 5 years. In mixed and rain fed area, agriculture is
predominant followed by dairying. In rain fed area, both agriculture and dairying activities
were found to have increased in the last 5 years.
In all the prospective area a majority of the activities were carried out jointly by men
and women. In the mixed area, chick rearing is carried out exclusively by women and
working in rice mills is done exclusively by men. The reason stated by women of irrigated
and rain fed areas for increased dairying activity is that with dairying money is frequently
seen in their hands unlike with agriculture.
Seasonal variation in income source
Seasons in the area are clearly defined and people are able to identify their incomes
and expenditures in relation to the seasons. Specific seasons in a year in the study area are
rainy season (June-Sept), winter season (Oct-Jan) and summer season (Feb-May). In the
current procurement area dairy incomes are high in rainy and winter season, but expenditure
on dairy is generally the same around the year and a little bit higher during summer. In
prospective areas agricultural income is higher is rainy and winter seasons and dairy income
is high in the summer season. However, expenditures for both agriculture and dairy follow
this seasonality.
Gender roles and issues in dairy
In most countries, land or livestock may be owned by individuals, but in India the
situation is different. In India in general and in the present study area in particular, one cannot
say that either women or men are holders of any living or non-living property or asset.
Generally land may be officially in the name of men as they deal with all outdoor activities
including legal issues and the women deal with household management as a tradition. In
mixed crop-livestock systems, the general view from society regarding ownership is that it is
family ownership and they say a family is holding 2 acres of irrigated land, 2 buffaloes and 3
cows. With the death of the male family head, the property goes to the nearest male family
member, which makes it difficult for women to avail credit from banks which usually
demand collateral of land under their name.
Most of the other stakeholders in the dairy value chain of the study area are men:
almost all extension staff, government field staff, para veterinary staff, milk traders, shop
keepers of veterinary medical shops and feed and fertilizer shops. Nevertheless, that does not
seem to affect the access of women or causing inconvenience to the women in any manner to
using their services in the study area.
Comparison of women labour across the zones
The reason for the higher proportion of activities by women in agriculture in the
irrigated area as opposed to the mixed and rain fed areas may be due to the predominance of
paddy being cultivated in this zone. Paddy cultivation needs huge amounts of women labour
particularly for nursery bed raising, transplanting and for harvesting.
Gender differences in different activities are observed. Men are involved
predominantly in ploughing of land, procurement of seed, fertilizers, arranging irrigation
infrastructure, transport related activities, marketing functions, attending social and legal
issues and all those works which require commanding and more physical energy. On the
other hand, women work predominantly in specific crop-related operations (sowing, weeding,
harvesting, threshing, packing, etc.), livestock rearing (milking animals, collection of fodder,
feeding animals, cleaning animal shed, taking care of livestock health, disposal of milk to
different channels) and household work like cooking, maintaining the stock of drinking and
washing water and taking care of children.
Hours spent by an individual on a particular enterprise and the earnings he or she
made out of it help understand which enterprise is allotted with more time to make more
profits. It also depicts the way of lifestyle of people of a particular geographical area. After
identifying the main activities in a typical day, the number of hours was recorded against
each activity. It was found that women have additional work of household and cooking work
compared with men; in all the zones this amounts to 3-4.5 additional hours of work. In no
area studied was the amount of men’s time spent on dairy work more than for women. In all
the study area, the amount of time spent by women on dairy activities is clearly higher than
that of men (Table 1). In the total labor hired for agriculture purposes, the proportion of men
is higher than women. In all the prospective area, a high amount of rest period (leisure time
and sleeping time) is enjoyed by men. In the existing procurement area, a higher amount of
rest period is available to women of the irrigated area than for the women of mixed and dry
land areas. On average 1.5 hour is used by the participants towards breakfast, lunch and
dinner in a typical day.
Decision making and control over the income from milk sales
In all the zones of the existing procurement area as well as in the prospective area, all
dairy related decisions are made predominantly by mutual consultation within the household.
Proceeds from the sale are used by both men and women but with a slightly higher share by
women in case of proceeds from milk sales; likewise, a higher share is earned by men in case
of the income from cattle sales. In both existing and prospective areas, participants
unanimously opined that this pattern of decision-making has not changed for the past years
and will not change in the future.
Community organizations (self-help groups)
The number of peoples’ groups in the dairy’s current procurement area is clearly
higher than in the dairy’s prospective area and in both the areas there are more groups
exclusively meant for women than groups meant for mixed genders and men (Table 2).
Furthermore, groups meant for mixed genders are more numerous than groups exclusively
targeting men. Most of the women’s groups are for the purpose of small savings and to meet
small credit needs. There is poorer group participation behavior in rain fed areas of both
existing and prospective procurement areas in comparison with irrigated and mixed areas.
There was a complete absence of caste based groups and dairy related groups in the dairy’s
prospective area.
Opportunities for increased dairy production
In the irrigated system, there are fewer animals even though more fodder is
available. This abundance of fodder close by constitutes and opportunity for dairy production
as in existing areas for the dairy’s procurement, low productive animals are being replaced
with high producing animals and animal numbers have increased to some extent due to the
existence of MWCD for marketing milk.
There is also the possibility of canal construction in the dairy’s prospective
procurement areas, which would give more chances for increasing the production of
cultivated fodder, leading to increasing numbers of animals if the farmers are organized to
market their milk. Indeed, farmers are more interested in improving their feeding system if
they get good prices for their milk. Finally, another opportunity arises for increased dairy
production as dairy farming is considered as a livelihood option after agriculture in the rain
fed system, for lack of other employment opportunities.
Constraints to increased dairy production
In both existing and prospective areas of the dairy’s milk procurement, and among all
farming systems, lack of quality veterinary services, artificial insemination (AI), and credit
facilities are considered major constraints. In prospective areas, farmers are unable to get the
compound feeds, which are available in the dairy’s existing procurement areas through the
subsidy provided by WDC societies. As far as market incentives are concerned, farmers in
both areas felt that they were not getting the right price for their milk. In both the existing
milk procurement and prospective areas of the cooperative, most of the constraints faced by
dairy producers are related to capital followed by policy related matters.
3.2 Actors of the informal milk marketing chains
Milk traders
It was found that traders in the existing milk collection area of the cooperative are
having more activities apart from their milk business to support their living than traders in the
prospective area. This could be an indication that depending on milk business alone is not
giving sufficient levels of income to them. Other businesses generally include running
grocery shops, local transport businesses, agriculture or working as agriculture laborer.
The highest amount of milk was procured from small producers who have 1-3
animals. In both existing and prospective areas, the volume of milk handled by the traders is
much higher in the rain fed zone than in irrigated and mixed zones. The biggest milk outlet of
the traders interviewed is to the final consumers but in the rain fed zone of the dairy’s
prospective area it is the sweet manufacturers (Table 3). The reason for this exception may be
attributed to high kova1content giving capacity of the milk produced in rain fed areas to be
used for sweet production. But in the rain fed zone of the existing collection area of the
cooperative, most of the milk is moved through organized channels. The dairy cooperatives
pay milk prices that vary according to fat content, so the small farmers remaining to supply
milk to independent traders are those who are not connected to the organized channel because
of various reasons: lack of good relation with the dairy’s milk collecting staff, member of
another group of milk producers who are dominant at a milk collection center, milk collection
timings which are inconvenient.
The trend over the last 5 years in all of the dairy’s existing procurement area is a
decline from the volume of milk traders used to handle in the past. It is because of the
competition from MWCD. The dairy is being successful at including more milk producer
members because of the good monetary, physical and social benefits it is offering. But in
1Kova,
also called khoa is a product made from milk. It is made from milk thickened by heating in an open iron pan. Kova is
used as the base for a wide variety of Indian sweets. According to the sweet manufacturers interviewed, about 200 g of kova
can be obtained from one liter of milk on average.
irrigated and rain fed zones of the prospective area a mixed response was observed: half the
traders interviewed said milk collection had increased and the other half said it had
decreased. Mixed area traders said milk collection had decreased.
It was found that most of the milk is collected from small producers where men and
women’s presence is equal. Most of the milk in the dairy’s existing procurement area is
supplied to final consumers and hotels. In the prospective area most of the milk is going to
final consumers and sweet manufacturers. Final consumers are both men and women equally
but hotels and sweets manufacturing units are dominated by men. In the existing procurement
area of MWCD, the number of milk traders has come down in the last 5 years, whereas in
prospective areas traders are dominant actors for collection and selling milk as they do not
have competitive cooperatives in these areas. Prices are predetermined in all the study area
and are based on indicators like kova content, freshness, etc.; milk price also varies with
different traders.
There is absolutely no processing activity carried out by traders in the study area. The
milk is collected every day. The transport costs for milk collection and distribution is
exclusively borne by the traders in both existing and prospective areas for MWCD
procurement. Few traders are able to keep their own collection centers in the villages
(predominantly in the prospective area). In the dairy’s existing milk procurement area,
collection of milk is predominantly done by door to door collection. Almost all traders are
procuring milk based on water content through lactometer reading and there is no quality
checking by the food safety department.
Farmers are providing good quality milk in the cooperative’s existing procurement
areas. According to milk traders’ opinion, they are receiving low, medium and high quality
milk to an extent of 2.1, 9.1 and 88.6%, respectively in the existing area. In the prospective
area, the ratio of low, medium and high quality milk is different (10, 42.6 and 47.3%,
respectively).
The relationship between dairy producers and traders is informal and bound by credit
or money advance. Late payment or low price for milk always leads to changing traders in
the prospective area where there is competition between traders. In the entire study area no
milk traders’ association was found at present, but a few years back there used to be a milk
traders’ association with the name “Kakatiya Palavarthaka Sangham”. After the rise of the
cooperative and private dairies in this area, the association died off.
Traders in both existing and prospective milk procurement areas face quite similar
constraints: competition from organized dairy marketing chains. They are managing the
competition from the dairy and agents of dairy unions by means of relaxation on quality
requirement, going and collecting milk at the producer’s door step and by lending credit as
and when the milk producers need it.
Sweet manufacturers cum sellers
Two out of the six sweet manufacturers cum sellers (SMSs) interviewed said that the
volume of milk they handle has increased, others opined that it has decreased or is the same.
There is increasing demand for milk products as the income level is improving in cities, and
also there is competition among the shops for quality sweets. Change in the total volume of
milk sweets sold and change in the total number of customers per day have varied in similar
ways in the last 5 years.
The sample of SMSs never practiced milk pasteurization or ice-cream making. They
are only involved in fermentation and sweet making activities. Fermentation is mainly carried
out for curd preparation and requires no machinery. For sweet making, machines, fuel wood,
sugars, baking soda and other chemicals are used. Even though not all sweets shops are
checked for food quality, frequent visits are reported from the food safety department. The
largest component in total sweet manufacturing cost is the cost of milk procurement in case
of all the SMSs interviewed. There is no transport cost for the SMSs for procuring the milk as
this is borne by the traders or direct suppliers. None of the SMSs interviewed had women in
their staff.
The most prominent criteria used by SMSs in deciding the milk quality is by testing
the kova content in the milk. Usually, if they are able to get 190-230 g of kova from one liter
of milk, they call it as a medium quality milk and if the kova content of the milk is below this
range it is considered as low quality milk. If kova content is above 230 g, the milk is
considered of high quality. There is a strong relationship between SMSs and traders to ensure
quality of the product and efficient payment systems.
3.3. Value chain assessment
Gender role in different marketing channels
Milk procurement channels in dry land villages of the existing collection area are
those managed by the Mulukanoor dairy, the Vijaya dairy and those supplying milk by
producers themselves to hotels (Fig. 2). Supplying milk to Mulukanoor and Vijaya is carried
out by both genders, but supplying milk to hotels at Husnabad is carried out by men only. In
mixed and irrigated villages of the dairy’s current procurement area, the only milk collection
center is that of the Mulukanoor dairy and the access is for women only. Milk is moved from
producers’ home to dairy collection centers or hotels without any processing. In dry land
areas of the prospective area, there is only one channel: collection of milk through the agent
of the Mulukanoor dairy to whom all the men and women of the village bring milk. In mixed
and irrigated areas, there were agents of Mulukanoor and Vijaya dairy and also a few traders.
Apart from this, farmers also sell milk to individual milk buyers of the same village for their
household consumption.
Wherever there is a Mulukanoor milk collection center, women’s access and selling
proportion is very high and taking milk to the hotels of nearby towns is carried out by men
only. In the prospective area on the other hand, milk flow by men and women is almost the
same; there is equal distribution to agents and traders and no or hardly any direct supply to
hotels, traders and cooperative agents (Fig. 3 and 4). All activities for milk collection and
supply in cities are done mainly by men. According to stakeholders interviewed, there was
not much change from a gender perspective in the last few years in the way milk is being
marketed.
Milk prices and payment system
In the study area, milk prices are usually determined by the Mulukanoor dairy and
Vijaya dairy by taking into consideration various issues like net profit to the dairy, cost of
milk production by the milk producers, milk price in the market, and competition from other
milk suppliers in the market. The committee or board of the dairies decide the price for one
unit of fat content and one unit of lactometer reading (LR); a milk rate table will be prepared
and sent to all the collection centers of the Union on how much to pay to suppliers for a
particular quantity and quality of milk. Other actors of the value chain start changing or
fixing their selling or purchasing prices based on the price paid by the dairy union and other
companies.
Average buffalo as well as cow milk prices in the existing cooperative catchment
areas are higher than in the prospective area in all irrigated and dry land areas (Table 4). The
only exception is for cow milk price in mixed area. The average difference between highest
and lowest prices of buffalo milk in the dairy’s existing procurement area is 115% whereas in
the prospective area it is 127%. In case of cow milk, this difference is 102% and 70% in
existing and prospective areas, respectively. Buffalo milk price volatility is thus lower in the
existing milk procurement area of the dairy than in the prospective area whereas in case of
cow milk it is quite opposite. Payment is usually made fortnightly in the existing area where
organized milk collection centers exist. In the prospective area payment is also usually made
at fortnightly intervals and in case of hotels payment is made on day to day basis.
Feed resources
In the MWCD’s existing milk procurement area, Mulukanoor dairy society is the
main source for various feeds and other inputs. This source is followed by own production for
grasses, and wet and dry fodder, but also nearby rice mills and local feed shops. The
Mulukanoor society is providing compound feed, bran, cotton cake, fodder seed, veterinary
medicines, AI, vaccinations, savings facility and bonus on overall dairy profits. In the
prospective area, feed is predominantly obtained from local or nearby town feed shops
wherever agents are there, supplying various feeds at actual costs; the only advantage lies in
zero transportation cost. The feed cost is less for the dairy farmers in existing areas where
MWCD exists due to input subsidy support, whereas the dairy farmers from prospective areas
spend more for the same feeds.
Veterinary services
All the private or cooperative dairies existing in the study area are providing some
primary veterinary services at nominal or free cost and for critical services animal owners
approach the nearest government veterinary hospitals. In the dairy’s prospective area also,
people are predominantly depending on public government service rather than private
services. In all the areas the services are equally accessible to men and women. According to
the men interviewed in mixed zones of the prospective area, the veterinary services available
are not up to the mark but women say they are satisfactory.
Breeding services
In the existing MWCD procurement area, a predominant requirement of producers is
timely AI support. A characteristic feature of this area is that producers do not depend on
natural mating in all of irrigated, mixed and rain fed zones. But in the prospective area, apart
from depending on AI for breeding, hiring sires for natural mating seems to be high. AI costs
about 100/dose and for one natural mating it is around 200/service. Both the methods of
breeding are equally available for men as well as women. For detecting the appropriate time
for AI, the dairy union is making oral advertisements through the male veterinary staff and in
other areas the para-vet staff (Gopalamitra) engaged by the government are doing this work.
Credit sources
In the existing area, predominant credit sources in irrigated and dry areas are
commercial banks followed by women saving groups and private money lenders. In mixed
areas, it is national banks and savings groups, which are exclusively for women. In case of
commercial banks and money lenders both men and women have equal access while in the
case of women’s group loans, access is mainly for women and almost nil for men. No gender
specific variation is observed in interest rates or transactional costs in institutional financing.
In mixed zones of the prospective area cooperative banks are predominant followed
by commercial banks, but in irrigated and dry areas commercial banks are predominant
followed by cooperative banks, women groups and milk collecting agents. All sources are
equally accessible to both genders. Women’s groups are exclusively used by women only.
Interest ranges on credit also do not vary from men to women in this area.
In both existing and prospective areas, the main difficulty of value chain participants
is producing collateral security (mainly land, which is owned predominantly by men).
Market information
In all the areas, market information is available predominantly from fellow farmers
followed by staff of milk collection centers. In the existing milk procurement areas of the
dairy, information is shared mainly with women but access to information by men is also
possible through neighbors, TV and other media. In the prospective area, marketing
information is gained mainly through milk collecting agents, milk traders, neighbors and TV.
Information on milk pricing system and all input services are shared among the members of
the communities.
Extension services
In the cooperative’s existing milk procurement area, agriculture extension services are
provided by government staff; their advice is mainly on crop protection. In the prospective
area, extension advice received from government staff is varied. (There are limited visits by
government extension staff according to women but according to men the number of visits
was more.) In both existing as well as prospective areas, respondents’ predominant
requirement in case of any possible training is on improving fat content of milk at lower cost.
4. Conclusion
This study was predominantly based on focus group discussions with different
stakeholders of the dairy value chains in Karimnagar district, Telangana, India. The study
tried to take into consideration each agro-ecological zone of the study area to answer
questions asked by the management of the Mulukanoor Women’s Cooperative Dairy on
avenues available for further milk production development. Based on the results of this
research, the following prominent recommendations can be suggested to MWCD for
expanding their dairy business:

Increasing the milk yield per animal of the existing members by addressing the
problems in milk production, which are area specific.

Hiring land for fodder seed production and expansion of feed unit or long term
agreement with feed companies and usage of feed choppers will help to meet the feed
shortage in the summer lean period. Improved utilization of crop residues from the
different cropping systems in place in irrigated, mixed and rain fed zones could also
enhance animal feeding potential through reusing available resources.

Development and investment of water storage facilities in rain fed areas will help to
cultivate more fodder for dairy development.

Increase the credit facility to purchase more animals as the members are willing to
grow more animals due to available fodder, for example by making available loans to
its members for purchasing of dairy animals at discounted interest rates.

Increasing the radius of procurement operations should be considered only to an
extent of 5–10 km to adjust the excess transaction costs for expansion. There is one
option to collect milk from the prospective areas through women self-help groups
rather than traders to avoid quality issues and also saving on additional costs.

A long term business agreement with sweet manufacturers would be beneficial for the
cooperative’s business development to distribute its milk with high fat content.
However, entering such a relationship with actors that are predominantly male could
go against the principles of the MWCD.

In the existing marketing area, attracting new customers through decreased retail price
and 24 hour milk booths are easier options for enhancing the volume of selling milk
than creating a sweet manufacturing business, which would require large investments
in machine and human capacity.

Expansion of the business through supply of milk to Hyderabad city could help to pull
the expansion of the milk procurement from the current operational area to
prospective areas.

Export of value added products like sweets is possible to other country if the quality
of milk is maintained.

Bringing the non-member milk producers in the present operational area into the
union, and in particular male dairy farmers, with special provisions to make sure the
decision making within the cooperative and its benefits still continue to empower
women. To increase the bulk of milk supply, this option will remain easier, more
efficient, and more gender-equitable over the other option of spreading out milk
procurement to new and more-distant areas with only women suppliers. Although the
cooperative was founded as women-only so as to empower women, given the results
already achieved in women empowerment, it is time for the MWCD to think of new
organizational models that will allow achieving its objectives while still allowing for
greater gender-equality among its rural base. The men farmers interviewed from the
potential procurement area and those few men farmers that were chanced upon in the
current milk supply area all requested the cooperative supply base to be open to men.
Further comparative research is needed to assess the level of women empowerment
and control over decision making in women-only cooperatives, mixed-gender
cooperatives and mixed-gender cooperatives with by-laws in place for gendertransformative change. It is possible that the MWCD can still achieve its objectives of
women empowerment through dairy by inviting men farmers to join its supply base
and membership while also putting in place the rules and by-laws that will enable
women to stay at the center of decision making and to keep control over the benefits
of the enterprise.

Attracting more mixed gender members into the cooperative through pension and
insurance schemes would also boost quantities of milk supplied from members.
5. References
Bandyopadhyay, M.K. 1996. “Dairy Co-Operative and Rural development: with special
reference to comparative study between Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’
Union Limited and the Himalayan Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Limited.” Finance
India 2: 406-411.
Candler. W, and N. Kumar. 1998. India: “The Dairy Revolution: The impact of Dairy
Development in India and the World Bank’s Contribution”. The World Bank Operation
Evaluation Department (OED), Washington, D.C, U.S.A: The World Bank. Accessed
online 13 September 2014
http://lnweb90.worldbank.org/oed/oeddoclib.nsf/fb71ec897615187985256885007b6ad0/1
bdd436f3bb1c0d68525684800767e4e/$FILE/India_Dairy.pdf
Dairy India. 1983. 5th Edition: The significance of Dairy India. Accessed online 24 August
2014 http://www.indiadairy.com/book_dairy_india.html
Doornbos, M., Stuijvenberg, P., and P. Terhal. 1987. “Operation Flood: Impacts and Issues.”
Food Policy, 12: 376-383.
FAOSTAT database accessed online 4 September 2014 http://faostat3.fao.org/faostatgateway/go/to/browse/Q/QL/E
Garcia, O., Saha, A., Mahmood, K., Ndambi, A., and T. Hemme. 2006. “Dairy Development
Programs in Andhra Pradesh, India: Impacts and Risk for Small-scale Dairy Farms.” Pro
Poor Livestock Policy Initiative Working Paper No 38. Accessed online 4 September 2014
http://www.fao.org/ag/AGAinfo/projects/en/pplpi/docarc/wp38.pdf
George, J. 1988. “Objective evaluation Studies: the case of operation flood.” Food policy 3:
338-340
GoTelangana. 2014. Accessed online 21 August 2014
http://www.telangana.gov.in/Pages/State_Profile.aspx
Kumara Swamy, Blümmel, M., Cadilhon, J.-J., Colverson, K., and Yerradoddi Ramana
Reddi. 2013. “The Mulukanoor Women’s Cooperative Dairy – a Gendered Value Chain
Assessment.” ILRI Report, Hyderabad, ILRI. Accessed online 12 September 2014
http://bit.ly/1qC4BDY
Lipton, M. 2006. “Can Small Farmers Survive, Prosper, or be the Key Channel to cut Mass
Poverty.” Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics 3: 58-85.
Mehta, R., Nambiar, R.G., Delgado, C., and S. Subramanyam. 2003. “Annex II: Livestock
Industrialization Project: Phase II – Policy, Technical, and Environmental Determinants
and Implications of the Scaling-Up of Broiler and Egg Production in India”. IFPRI-FAO
project on Livestock Industrialization, Trade and Social-Health-Environment impacts in
Developing Countries. Accessed online on 14 September 2014
http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/lead/x6170e/x6170e2j.htm
NSS. 2006. “Livestock Ownership across Operational Land Holdings Classes in India, 200203.” Report no. 493, January 2006, Government of India, p.12
Thapa, G., and R. Gaiha. 2011. “Smallholder Farming in Asia and the Pacific: Challenges
and Opportunities.” Paper presented at the Conference on New Directions for Small
Holder Agriculture, 24-25 January 2011, Rome, IFAD.
Van Acker, J. 1978. World Food Programme in India: the white revolution. Rome, Italy:
Information
Division,
FAO.
Accessed
online
on
15
September
2014
http://books.google.com/books?id=cyWzAAAAIAAJ
World Bank. 1991. “World development report 1991: the challenge of development”. New
York: Oxford university press. Accessed online on 14 September 2014
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/5974
Fig. 1. Mulukanoor Women’s Cooperative Dairy existing operational area and prospective
procurement areas
ADILABAD DISTRICT
NIZAMABAD DISTRICT
KARIMNAGAR DISTRICT
Chigurumamidi
MEDAK DISTRICT
MAHARASHTRA STATE
CHHATTISGARH STATE
Bommakal
MWCD
Basvapur
Antakkapet
Mallampalli
Kandugula
Kamalapur
Shanigaram
Pechara
NALGONDA DISTRICT Tharigoppula
Dharmasagar
Thatikonda
WARANGAL DISTRICT
KHAMMAM DISTRICT
-------- Dairy’s present operating area
………… Proposed prospective area
Green triangles: district head cities
Fig. 2. Gender disaggregation of milk traders’ suppliers and customers in Karimnagar district,
Telangana, India
Small
producers
E: 96%
P: 97.56%
Large
producers
E: 2.4%
P: 0%
Final
consumers
E: 34.42%
P: 57.9 %
Hotels
E: 65.57%
P: 1.13%
Traders
Own dairy
units
E: 0%
P: 2.43%
SMSs
E: 0%
P: 40.90%
Dairy’s milk
collection
centres
E: 1.6%
P: 0%
=
=
Women dominated
=
Men dominated
= Equal presence
E = Existing area P = Prospective area
Fig. 3. Milk value chain actors, input services in the Mulukanoor Women’s Cooperative Dairy existing collection areas
CREDIT
VIJAYA
MARKETING
CHANNEL
NEW ANIMALS
Nearest
cooperative
/ commecial
bank
Private
Money
lenders
Velugu
/ DWCRA
loans
FODDER
NAGARJUNA
MARKETING
CHANNEL
VIJAYA DAIRY
COLLECTION
CENTRE
NAGARJ UNA
COLLECTION
CENTRE
NAGARJ UNA
DAIRY
PLANT
MULKANOOR
COOPERATIVE
DAIRY COLLECTION
CENTRE
NON
FODDER
AGENTS/
DISTRIBUTORS
(located in various cities)
EXISTING
VILLAGE
FEED
DRY
By
purchasing
VIJAYA
DAIRY PLANT
From the local
government staff
/ private input
company
representatives
WET
Own
production
EXTENSION ADVICE
RETAIL SHOPS
From nearest
livestock markets
Kitchen
waste
CONSUMERS
MARKETI NG
DEPARTMENT
OWN USE
FEED MIX,
CONCENTRATES
LOCAL CONSUMERS
(WHO ARE IN PRE
AGREEMENT)
BRAN
HOTELS
FEED:
- Feed mix (dhana) @ Rs. 100 /5kg
- Bran @ Rs. 680 / 50 kg
- Cotton cake @ Rs. 800 / 50 kg
- Grass seeds @ Rs. 100 / 5 kg
VET.NEEDS:
- Rs. 50 / visit by vet expert
- Devorming medicines @free
INSURANCE NEEDS:
- For animals @Rs 300 / annum
to claim Rs. 10000 exgratia
- AI @ Rs.50/dose
- For human beings @Rs .100 /
annum to claim Rs .20000 + 2000
exgratia
DAIRY UNION
Fig. 4. Milk value chain actors and input services in the prospective milk procurement areas of the Mulukanoor Women’s Cooperative Dairy
NEW ANIMALS
VET SERVICES
Kitchen
waste
Own
production
From nearest
livestock markets
From nearest
vet hospitals and
trained technicians
From nearest
Cooperative /
Commercial bank
From the local
government staff
/ private input
company
representatives
VIJAYA
DAIRY
MULKANOOR
DAIRY
WET
PROSPECTIVE
VILLAGE
FODDER
AGENTS
JERSI
DAIRY
FEED
DRY
ma
rke Cre
t i n dit,
f or
ma
tio
n
NON
FODDER
By
purchasing
EXTENSION ADVICE
CREDIT
MILK PACKETS
TRADERS
NAGARJUNA
DAIRY
FEED MIX,
CONCENTRATES
OWN USE
SWEET
SHOPS
BRAN
LOCAL CONSUMERS
(WHO ARE IN PRE
AGREEMENT)
NO INSURANCE AT ALL
HOUSEHOLDS IN
WARANGAL CITY
HOTELS
CONSUMERS
Table 1. Gender-disaggregated time spent on various activities by dairy farmers in the territory around the Mulukanoor Women’s Cooperative
Dairy
Existing milk procurement area
Irrigated
Mixed
Rain fed
(women only)
(women only)
(women
Prospective area
Irrigated
Mixed
Rain fed
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
only)
Household work (including cooking)
3.0
4.5
3.0
-
3.0
-
3.5
-
4.0
Dairy shed work (feeding, cleaning)
3.0
1.5
2.0
1.0
2.5
2.0
2.5
1.0
2.5
Field work
6.0
5.5
7.0
9.0
6.0
8.0
6.5
8.5
6.0
For milking and disposing the milk at
0.5
0.5
0.5
1.5
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.5
Grass collection
0.5
1.0
1.5
1.5
0.5
1.0
1.0
1.0
0.5
Grazing animals and washing animals
0.5
1.0
1.0
-
1.5
1.5
1.0
2.0
1.0
TV watching
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.5
-
1.0
1.5
0.5
0.5
Rest/sleep
8.0
7.5
6.5
8.0
7.5
8.0
6.0
9.0
7.5
Lunch
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
Breakfast
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
Dinner
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
various sources
Table 2 Community based institutions (self-help groups) in existing and prospective procurement areas of the Mulukanoor Women’s
Cooperative Dairy
Gender
specification
Existing procurement area
Prospective area
Irrigated
Mixed
Rain fed
Irrigated
(women only)
(women only)
(women only)
(mixed gender) gender)
gender)
Male groups
1 – 0 – 0*
1–0–0
1–0–0
2–0–1
0–0–0
1–0–0
Female groups
4–2–0
5–1–1
3–1–0
3–0–0
2–0–0
1–0–0
Mixed groups
3–1–0
2–1–0
2 – 0 –1
1–0–0
1–0–1
0–0–0
*Where in x – y – z:
x = Number of groups
y = Number of groups having link with dairy related activities
z = Number of groups now not active
Mixed (mixed
Rain fed (mixed
Table 3. Average quantity of milk supplied to different actors by milk traders interviewed in Karimnagar district, Telangana, India
Area/Zone
Hotels (L/day)
Final consumers
Sweet shops
Existing area
Prospective area
(L/day)
(L/day)
Irrigated zone
10.0
62.5
0.0
Mixed zone
30.0
42.5
0.0
Rain fed zone
0.0
60.0
0.0
Irrigated zone
0.0
60.0
0.0
Mixed zone
2.5
62.5
0.0
Rain fed zone
0.0
5.0
257.5
Table 4. Price of milk in different farming systems around the Mulukanoor Women’s Cooperative Dairy
Buffalo milk
Cow milk
Existing milk procurement
Prospective milk procurement
area ( )
area ( )
Average
High
Low
Average
High
Low
Irrigated
40.0
58.0
24.0
22.3
48.0
20.0
Mixed
35.8
46.0
20.0
22.0
40.0
20.0
Rain fed
30.0
40.0
23.0
22.0
48.0
20.0
Irrigated
20.0
34.0
18.0
18.0
22.0
12.0
Mixed
15.9
39.0
14.0
18.0
24.0
15.0
Rain fed
22.0
28.0
18.0
-
-
-