Amul is a great successful story of a cooperative society. It could be
or should be extended to fruits and vegetables as well. Dr.Jain feels
that politicians do not encourage such cooperative efforts as at the
dawn of Independence. He tells us that it took almost 20 years to
achieve to be profitable for Amul. Agreed. However, the fact remains
that it could be achieved if entrepreneurs are determined to do it.
There is no lack of resources, there is no lack of human resources but
there is lack of will.
" Amul has a world-class back-end infrastructure that processes 100
lakh litres of milk gathered from 30 lakh farmers across 15,000
villages twice a day. We didn't need any foreign capital or expertise
to accomplish this. Besides, we involved the community instead of
excluding it", says R.S.Sodhi, Managing Director,GCMMF ( Gujarat
Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation) on asked about FDI in retail ,
and adds " FDI in retail.. will increase the glamour quotient of the
economy. Beyond this, there is little usefulness of this step." (
Indian Express December 4, 2011).
Here is a ready-made nucleus for a start - 30 lakh farmers most of
them must be cultivating fruits and vegetables. It requires a series
of refrigeration facilities across 15,000 villages, grading and
packing, refrigerated trucks for distribution to the retailers.
I do hope GCMMF would approach the state and central governments to
get tax holiday for a period of 5 to 10 years and low interest loan
from banks, as a priority sector, for this venture since it may take
some years to be profitable.
June 10,2012.
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