Banas Dairy Cooperative ( Asia's largest cooperative dairy)

                               

                                      BANAS DAIRY COOPERATIVE

If we add 3,50,000 farmers, 1,60,000 cattle,50,00,000 liters of milk, and 8 high-tech processing plants we get Asia's largest dairy cooperative ' The Banas Dairy Cooperative.

Banas dairy cooperative every day collects over 50 lakh liters of milk and its annual turnover is about $1.15 billion. Banas is not a normal dairy it is an ultimate milk factory. Banas produces Normal milk packets, Milk powder, Cheese, Butter, Ghee(Clarified butter), Panner, Buttermilk, Flavoured Milk, and Ice cream on a large scale. Banas Dairy is named in the district where its headquarters is situated. Banas Dairy is situated in Banaskantha district, Palanpur village in Gujarat. This place is present between the desert of Rajasthan and Rann of Kutch's salty flat land. That is a very dry and drought area. There is no hope of rainfall as it is always less than the average. The geography of that district is not in its favor. Condition is very tough, the water level is very low, the soil condition is poor, and the area is drought and infertile. Banas dairy is very far from human settlement. The nearest city is about 150km from it. 

So the question arises, How does this dairy succeed in this tough geographic condition, and how does this cooperative connect with village farmers and help them economically and socially?

Banas Dairy was established in 1969, just after a few times of cooperative movements in Gujarat. At that time Anand Dairy and Mehsana Dairy already completed their path of success. Galbabhai Nanjbhai Patel started this cooperative with only 100 farmers. At that time every day 800-liter milk was collected but today after 5 decades membership increased so much. The current number of members is more than 3,50,000 and the daily milk quantity is about 50 lakh liters per day. It is growing at a speed of 10% every year. In this cooperative, up to 90% of villages are included. In the past time besides dairy and milk, there was no other occupation. During a drought, people would migrate with their cattle. Milk was consumed by the families and was considered to be precious as sons and wasn't available for sale. Banas cooperative is one of the cooperatives from the 18 cooperatives that are part of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation and manufactures a famous brand product of 'Amul'. Banas cooperative is not a general cooperative. It contributes 25% to the total production of Amul.

The growth and success of this cooperative strongly affect the social and economic health of the members of 1251 villages in the Banaskantha district. Every family in these villages starts their day by feeding their cattle, After feeding the cattle go through the milking process. Farmers collect the fresh warm milk from their cattle fill it in big cans and take it to the local collection center. Every village has its local milk collection center and from these local collecting centers, milk is transferred to the Banas dairy cooperative by the number of trucks. The Industrial growth in Banas district is meager, from starting only an agriculture district, The population of this district is about 31 lakh,  and from it, 17.5 lakh depend on Banas cooperative for their family income and livelihood. The biggest success of Banas has been its ability to unite people and work together for everyone's prosperity. Today in that Rann, that desert has milk flowing like the Holy Ganga.

Handling any milk cooperative is a very technical task as milk has a very short self-life and in summer the temperature rises to 40 degrees Celsius in the Banas area. Any mistake in the storage of milk leads to its spoilage. Banas Dairy Cooperative follows a well-planned system that helps to bring the milk from farmers to the processing plant and to the consumer securely. 

The system starts with the farmer. They rear cattle for milk. They do not have to go all the way to the market to sell their milk. Banas Dairy buys all the milk they produce directly from them. The farmer's role is only to focus on managing the farm, cattle health, and maximizing their production. Famer fills the milk in the cans and brings it to the local collecting center, and these centers transfer the whole collected milk to the Banas dairy cooperative for further processing. During collection, society employees calculate the quantity and the fat content of the milk with the help of an automated system. Every farmer's milk output gets recorded on the computer automatically. The farmers can check their records through an app of Banas Dairy where the output is updated with the quality, fat percent, and  SNF of milk, and every farmer gets paid according to these data on the very fixed date of the following months directly through the bank accounts. The collected milk transfers to the main processing Banas headquarters with tankers of a capacity of 25000 liters. There are about 500 tankers daily entering the Banas dairy to supply the whole collected milk.

                                                                                   

The Banas dairy cooperative is spread across 122 acres. In this area, 67 football pitches can be made. In this dairy, there are 3 different units:

UNIT 1 (BANAS 1): Liquid milk, Paneer, Yoghurt, Buttermilk, Ghee, and dry powder are manufactured.

UNIT 2 (BANAS 2): Butter, Milk powder, and UHT tetra packs are processed.

UNIT 3 (BANAS 3): Ice cream, Butter, and Cheese are manufactured.

The milk from the tankers is sucked into big silos. The capacity of one silo is 1.5 lakh liter and in Banas, there are 26 silos of such capacity. The milk is sucked into silos after a quality clearance from a dedicated department. After data is updated in computers, the milk is transferred from tankers to the plant for further processing.

      

                         

To make the raw milk potable it should be processed, that's why the whole milk is firstly pasteurized. In the Pasteurization process, the milk through the help of steel pipes is heated to 76 degrees Celsius temperature for 15 seconds and after that, the temperature drops to 4 degrees Celcius. This pasteurization process helps to kill all the harmful organisms present in milk. After pasteurization milk is forwarded to the packaging area. 23 lakh liter milk is filled in packets as Normal milk through a packing machine, That packing machine packs 150 packets in a single minute which means 2.5 packets in one second. After packing the packets are loaded into trucks to supply the milk to markets and shops. Up to 10 lakh liters of milk is supplied to NCR( National Capital Region), and from this half quantity is transferred through specialized milk trains. These trains have 13 tanker vegans each with a capacity of 42000 liters, which means a train can transfer up to 5,66,000 liters of milk in a single run. The milk is totally cold and will not go bad for up to 36 hours as it has already been pasteurized at the dairy. In a single week, almost 4 times the milk train arrives at Faridabad junction from Gujarat, from the junction the milk is transferred to the Banas processing unit of Faridabad through 18 trucks. The plant situated in Faridabad is the largest production base out of Gujarat. That plant is fully established with modern machinery and it is also nearer to the customer base. It is spread over a 100-acre area, and it supplies its product to the entire NCR region.

Milk is a lifeline of Banas dairy cooperative and the cooperative invested so much to maintain the good health of cattle and to increase productivity. There are three breeds of cattle mostly found in Banaskantha district:

• Indigenous Kankrej Cow 
• Mehsani 
• Holstein Friesians (H.F cross)

  

  

 

 

In 2009, the Banas cooperative established a Bovine semen production unit to boost and enhance the genetic code of cattle.  To identify good milking breed varieties, cooperatively organize progeny testing programs from time to time. That program also helps in identifying the cow and buffalo's best male specimens and rearing them. Banas has started an aggressive artificial insemination program to enhance the quality and production of cattle milk. In Banas, the population of cattle is 17 lakh but only 10-15 lakh of cattle are breedable, Banas cooperative is planning to make it a 100% Artificial insemination population. Every day the bovine semen center collects the semen of healthy bulls and the semen is processed in the lab and the quality of it is checked by the experts. After the quality test, semen is filled in coded semen straws, up to 18 lakh straws are created in that center every year. These straws are stored with liquid nitrogen at -198 degrees Celsius temperature and supplied to every area of Banas district with veterinary team assistance. Under the cooperative role, 160 doctors regularly plan different camps for the cattle. 

In Banas dairy cooperative factory 2500 workers work in three shifts and ensure the working of the factory 24 hours and 365 days a year. Their work is not only the clicking of the right bottom of the machine but also taking care of 3.5 lakh members ( Every small and big farmer) from where the factory gets that 'White Gold'. In dairy, 50 lakh milk 50% quantity is pasteurized and packed in milk pouches and the rest is used in preparing other products Ice cream, Cheese, Ghee, etc. 1.1 million lite of milk is used to prepare milk powder, 3 lakh liter of milk is used to produce cheese, and UHT long-life milk, and 1,50,000 liter of milk is used to prepare Yogurt and Buttermilk, 1 lakh liter of milk is used to make Panner and 30,000 liters milk used to prepare Ice cream.

Banas Dairy is a cooperative which means its members are its owner and only they run it. The cooperative model runs deep in Indian blood. All will benefit if they continue to use this cooperative system as they move forward. The process of running this dairy cooperative is unique. It follows a pyramid system. In the pyramid at the bottom 3,50,000 milk producers are present. Every dairy farmer is a member of his local village dairy cooperative society. This 1251 village society elects 16 members and that form Banas dairy board. there is one chairman of this board, who arranges a meeting every month. In the meeting, the members talk about the overview of the cooperative work, talk about expansion plans, buying new machinery, and giving a bonus to every member. Banas Dairy Cooperative aims to manage the benefit to every member, easy quality service available, and share the whole profit with everyone. Cooperative gives about 85% to their members and 14% themselves for cooperative expenditure. The whole profit is not given in cash form. That cooperative regularly organizes social initiatives for the benefit of its members. Cooperative also take the responsibility of nutrition on their shoulders. They ensure that the dairy animals that come under the district Banaskantha get a balanced diet that meets their nutritional requirement. Cattle have to be fed at least 3 times a day, apart from regular diet cattle also need some additional nutrients by which their milking capacity may increase or enhance. Ensure the daily requirement of 1500 metric tons of cattle feed is met by a semi-automated cattle feed plant set up in 2013. Banas Cooperative invested about 1.38 billion rupees to establish that plant. That plant is spread across 20 acres and is active 24 hours a day. In the factory protein, fat, and minerals are mixed in a special ratio and converted into highly nutritious pellets with a molasses flavor. That factory was imported from Denmark. It daily manufactures 14,500 bags of 70kg of pellets.  The demand for cattle feed is very high and also increasing day today.

The Cooperative also organizes a free training program for its members. They taught about various breeds of cattle, their health management, milking, and various information helpful for farmers and students. Cooperative also provides subsidies for new machinery and techniques etc, For example- modern milking machines cost up to 40,000 but due to subsidies they cost half to the farmers. This machinery reduces the dependence on labor for work and apart from that it also saves time. Banas Dairy also followed every modern technique for many years. In the factory, almost every process is automated, with no human interference from the village center to the milk tanker, the dairy plant, and the entire chain's packaging area. The factory is implemented with the best technology which has helped them to maintain consistency in their products. The employees in the factory work on computer systems or in the production line packaging area only and the rest of the work is done in the pipes, tubes, and tanks. The automated system boosts the hygiene and quality of the product and factory. It also maintains efficiency and reduces manufacturing costs. Apart from automated processing the packaging also follows a highly maintained freshness of the product and increases the shelf-life of the products.

Asia's largest dairy for 5 decades invested their profit very precisely. Cooperative brought high-tech machinery, manufactured new value-added products such as Potato chips, Potato finger chips, Honey, etc., and ensured the health of their cattle. That's why it was awarded many times. In 2017, Banas Dairy was awarded the best in a large cooperative category in the National Dairy Development Award. Apart from that, it was also awarded for its infrastructure, quality parameters, quality standards, relation with milk producers, coverage of villages, and direct payment system to farmers.

The success story of Banas Cooperative is very unique and encouraging. Cooperative success enhances the socio-economic status of the district. Banas cooperative motivates the youth towards the agriculture sector for their career and to improve that sector further and also give a stand and happy lifestyle to all the farmers of that district. It also helps the people of Banaskantha district in various forms. Cooperative provides study opportunities, low-cost health treatments in hospitals, etc. The Banas dairy cooperative is a very big example of developing India.