abhishreshthaa
Abhijeet S
Traditionally dairying was a subsidiary occupation of the farmers of Kaira. However, the contribution to the farmer's income was not as prominent as his attachment to dairying as a tradition handed down from one generation to the next. The milk yield from animals, which were maintained mainly on the by products of the farm, was decidedly low. That together with the lack of facilities to market even the little produced rendered the scientific practice of animal husbandry irrational as well as unaffordable. The return on the investment as well as the prospects of being able to market the product looked very bleak. It was a vicious cycle reinforced by generations of beliefs.
The Kaira Union broke the cycle by not only taking upon themselves the responsibility of collecting the marketable surplus of milk but also provided the members with every provision needed to enhance production. Thus the Kaira Union has full-fledged machinery geared to provide animal health care and breeding facilities. As early as late fifties, the Union started making high quality buffalo semen. Through village society workers artificial insemination service was made available to the rural animal population. The Union started its mobile veterinary services to render animal health care at the farmers' doorstep. Probably for the first time in the country, veterinary first aid services, by trained personnel, were made available in the villages. Fully qualified staff mans the Union’s 16 mobile veterinary dispensaries. All the villages are visited bi-monthly, on a predetermined day, to provide animal health care. A 24-hour Emergency Service is also available at a fee (Rs. 35 for members and Rs. 100 for non-members). All the mobile veterinary vans are equipped with Radio Telephones.
The Union runs a semen production center where it maintains high pedigreed Surti buffalo bulls; Holstein Friesian bulls, Jersey bulls and 50 per cent crossbred bulls. The semen obtained from these bulls is used for artificial breeding of buffaloes and cows belonging to the farmer members of the district. The artificial insemination service has become very popular because it regulates the frequency of calving in cows and buffaloes thus reducing their dry period. Not only that, a balanced feed concentrate is manufactured in the Union's Cattle Feed Plant and sold to the members through the societies at cost price.
Impressive though its growth, the unique feature of the Amul sagas did not lie in the extensive use of modern technology, nor the range of its products, not even the rapid inroads it made into the market for dairy products. The essence of the Amul story lies in the breakthrough it achieved in modernizing the subsistence economy of a sector by organizing the rural producers in the areas.
The Kaira Union broke the cycle by not only taking upon themselves the responsibility of collecting the marketable surplus of milk but also provided the members with every provision needed to enhance production. Thus the Kaira Union has full-fledged machinery geared to provide animal health care and breeding facilities. As early as late fifties, the Union started making high quality buffalo semen. Through village society workers artificial insemination service was made available to the rural animal population. The Union started its mobile veterinary services to render animal health care at the farmers' doorstep. Probably for the first time in the country, veterinary first aid services, by trained personnel, were made available in the villages. Fully qualified staff mans the Union’s 16 mobile veterinary dispensaries. All the villages are visited bi-monthly, on a predetermined day, to provide animal health care. A 24-hour Emergency Service is also available at a fee (Rs. 35 for members and Rs. 100 for non-members). All the mobile veterinary vans are equipped with Radio Telephones.
The Union runs a semen production center where it maintains high pedigreed Surti buffalo bulls; Holstein Friesian bulls, Jersey bulls and 50 per cent crossbred bulls. The semen obtained from these bulls is used for artificial breeding of buffaloes and cows belonging to the farmer members of the district. The artificial insemination service has become very popular because it regulates the frequency of calving in cows and buffaloes thus reducing their dry period. Not only that, a balanced feed concentrate is manufactured in the Union's Cattle Feed Plant and sold to the members through the societies at cost price.
Impressive though its growth, the unique feature of the Amul sagas did not lie in the extensive use of modern technology, nor the range of its products, not even the rapid inroads it made into the market for dairy products. The essence of the Amul story lies in the breakthrough it achieved in modernizing the subsistence economy of a sector by organizing the rural producers in the areas.