Sambalpur: Sustainable development of the rural farmers and the entire ecosystem involved in the dairy sector through a conscious capitalism model being the main aim, dairy major Milk Mantra has gone a step ahead to empower its network farmers financially by educating them about profitable dairying. A workshop themed ‘Economic Empowerment, making a superfit Odisha’ was organized by the company at its Hatibari Plant in Sambalpur where hundreds of Group Associates and farmers were enlightened about quality and profitable dairying in presence of Founder & MD, Srikumar Misra and his senior team.
Group Associates (GA) are basically rural dairy farmers who are the ambassadors of Milk Mantra’s unique Ethical Milk Sourcing and look after the Collection Points (CP). Through this program the senior officials of the company threw light on various aspects of dairying such as ideal animal husbandry, productivity enhancement, hygiene of cattle shed, health care, food habits, growing demand of healthy and quality milk products in the market and dairy as a mainstream profession. Ten performing GAs were also felicitated for their significant contribution for encouraging more farmers towards Milk Mantra’s Ethical Milk Sourcing.
Speaking on the GAs’ role for making EMS model a huge success, Anil Burman, Sourcing Head Milk Mantra said, “The job of Group Associates doesn’t only limit to managing of the collection points. They are the face of the company and represent it at farmers end. Their performance and sincerity towards the farmers in the respective villages are responsible for bringing dairy development in rural ecosystem.”
Ethical Milk Sourcing (EMS) is a unique programme that ensures fair and timely payment to the farmers and encourages them to provide pure milk. Through this programme the company has contributed at least 250 crore to the rural economy as return since inception. As part of EMS, Milk Mantra has been successful in setting up 292 Collection Points in Eastern Odisha and 77 in Western Odisha with total 30 BMCs (Bulk Milk Coolers) in 10 districts of Odisha. Besides the company has disbursed cow loans amounting Rs 15 crore to 1499 beneficiaries, 10224 Artificial Inseminations out of which 3349 calves were born, conducted 763 training camps and 284 veterinary camps till today. Milk Mantrs’s this efficient model has also played a vital role in changing the social status of rural women. Due to its transparency, the model has made it easy for rural women to earn sitting at their home by contributing in profitable income.
Encouraging the GAs for their effortless support towards Milk Mantra, Srikumar Misra said, “Having 50,000 network farmers in six years of establishment, is a great success. With all extension services our EMS is not just a programme to conduct; rather it’s a system where series of different programmes get conducted in order to ensure sustainable growth of the farmers. Our sourcing team’s role is remarkable for putting such a flawless system in place, but I must say, the role of GAs in particular is more important as they are the ones who have made the system accessible to our farmers. We will continue to encourage in the same way and even more than this and by 2020 the network will be doubled to 1,00,000 member farmers.”
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