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 milk-

supplying 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 lacto-

vegetarians 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 agro-

ecological 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 gender-

transformative 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

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https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/5974

Fig. 1. Mulukanoor Women’s Cooperative Dairy existing operational area and prospective

procurement areas

KARIMNAGAR DISTRICT

WARANGAL DISTRICT

KHAMMAM DISTRICT

CHHATTISGARH STATE

MAHARASHTRA STATE

ADILABAD DISTRICTNIZAMABAD DISTRICT

MEDAK DISTRICT

NALGONDA DISTRICT

MWCD KamalapurShanigaram

KandugulaChigurumamidi

Basvapur

ThatikondaDharmasagar

Tharigoppula

PecharaMallampalli

Antakkapet

Bommakal

-------- Dairy’s present operating area

………… Proposed prospective area

Green triangles: district head cities

Traders

Final consumersE: 34.42%P: 57.9 %

HotelsE: 65.57%P: 1.13%

SMSsE: 0%P: 40.90%Dairy’s milk

collection centresE: 1.6%P: 0%

Own dairy unitsE: 0%P: 2.43%

Large producersE: 2.4%P: 0%

Small producers E: 96%P: 97.56%

Fig. 2. Gender disaggregation of milk traders’ suppliers and customers in Karimnagar district,

Telangana, India

= 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

EXISTINGVILLAGE

VIJAYA DAIRY COLLECTION

CENTRE

MULKANOORCOOPERATIVE

DAIRY COLLECTIONCENTRE

NAGARJUNA COLLECTION

CENTRE

RETAIL SHOPS

OWN USE

LOCAL CONSUMERS (WHO ARE IN PRE

AGREEMENT)

HOTELS

NEW ANIMALS

EXTENSION ADVICE

FEED

NON FODDER

DRY

WET

BRAN

FEED MIX, CONCENTRATES

FODDER

CREDIT

CONSUMERS

Own production

By purchasing

From nearest livestock markets

From the local government staff

/ private input company

representatives

DAIRY UNION

AGENTS/DISTRIBUTORS

(located in various cities)

MARKETINGDEPARTMENT

VIJAYADAIRY PLANT

NAGARJUNADAIRYPLANT

NAGARJUNAMARKETINGCHANNEL

VIJAYAMARKETINGCHANNEL

FEED:- Feed mix (dhana) @ Rs. 100 /5kg- Bran @ Rs. 680 / 50 kg- Cotton cake @ Rs. 800 / 50 kg- Grass seeds @ Rs. 100 / 5 kgVET.NEEDS:- Rs. 50 / visit by vet expert- Devorming medicines @freeINSURANCE 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 + 2000exgratia

Velugu/ DWCRA

loans

Nearest cooperative / commecial

bank

PrivateMoneylenders

Kitchenwaste

Fig. 4. Milk value chain actors and input services in the prospective milk procurement areas of the Mulukanoor Women’s Cooperative Dairy

PROSPECTIVEVILLAGE

HOUSEHOLDS IN WARANGAL CITY

SWEET SHOPS

VIJAYA DAIRY

MULKANOORDAIRY

JERSI DAIRY

NAGARJUNA DAIRY

AGENTS

TRADERS

MILK PACKETS

OWN USE

LOCAL CONSUMERS (WHO ARE IN PRE

AGREEMENT)

HOTELS

NEW ANIMALS VET SERVICES EXTENSION ADVICE

FEED

NON FODDER

DRY

WET

BRAN

FEED MIX, CONCENTRATES

FODDER

CREDIT

NO INSURANCE AT ALL

CONSUMERS

Own production

By purchasing

From nearest livestock markets

From nearest vet hospitals and trained technicians

From nearestCooperative /

Commercial bank

From the local government staff

/ private input company

representatives

Kitchenwaste

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 Prospective area

Irrigated

(women only)

Mixed

(women only)

Rain fed

(women

only)

Irrigated Mixed Rain fed

Men Women Men Women Men Women

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

various sources

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

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

(women only)

Mixed

(women only)

Rain fed

(women only)

Irrigated

(mixed gender)

Mixed (mixed

gender)

Rain fed (mixed

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

Table 3. Average quantity of milk supplied to different actors by milk traders interviewed in Karimnagar district, Telangana, IndiaArea/Zone Hotels (L/day) Final consumers

(L/day)

Sweet shops

(L/day)

Existing area 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

Prospective area 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

Existing milk procurement

area ( )

Prospective milk procurement

area ( )

Average High Low Average High Low

Buffalo milk

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

Cow milk 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 - - -