Introduction
Amul, Asia’s largest diarybrand,is considered as symbol of economic freedom of milk producers. Amul is the acronym for Anand Milk Union Limited, pioneering co operative society of India which has daily milk procurement approx 13.18 million litres per day from 17,025 village milk cooperative societies and 3.23 million milk producer members.(http://www.amul.com/m/organisation, 2014)
It all began in 1946, in a small village, Anand of Kaira District, Gujarat when milk became a symbol of protest against the exploitation of middlemen. In 1940s, milk was procured by private milk contractors and Polson’s Dairy supplied chilled milk the city of Bombay. Polson’s Diary, also known for Polson’s coffee, extracted dairy products such as cheese and butter, which were mainly supplied to British army. The company had a virtual stranglehold on the farmers, with non-scientific measurement methods and monopolistic rights of procurement. This led to a movement of farmers under the guidance of visionary Tribhuvan Das Patel and SardarVallabhBhai Patel, the freedom fighter. Vallabhbhai Patel’s strategy was to organize producer cooperatives to augment rural income while developing local industry. This model was first implemented at Anand, a village of Kaira District of Gujarat and soon spread to nearby villages of Gujarat Initially, AMUL concentrated on procuring milk from farmers at village collection centers and selling directly to consumers through the district unions- which was the hub for village collection centers. But soon it realised that milk being a perishable product, storage and market for surplus milk was a bigger challenge. Mr. VergheseKurien a qualified Diary Engineer, joined Amul as General Manager and fuelled innovative designs to expand the product line to other milk products like milk powder, butter, cheese etc. Until then, only cow’s milk was considered