Dairy-based Livelihoods
85
in some parts of the surrounding districts
like Sehore, Dewas and Khandwa. PMC
operator is a local youth, well-trained by
the company and is paid partially on fixed
amount and the rest based on the business
generated. Every village that supplies milk
has a PMC located within a distance of 5–10
kilometers. At each PMC, 50–200 farmers
pour milk daily. The PMCs typically oper-
ate throughout the year and serve the dual
purpose of milk collection and distribu-
tion of dairy inputs like feed and mineral
supplements, fodder seed etc. The milk
collection and supply chain comprises of
daily milk collections at the village level,
transportation of collected milk to chilling
centre/s and then eventually to the main
dairy or processing plant for pasteurisa-
tion/packaging and distribution.
The company invests in capacity devel-
opment of the field staff and dairy farmers.
Thirty-two paravet workers on the com-
pany’s payroll are local youth from the farm-
ing community and holding their first job.
They have been trained intensively for two
months which includes practical training,
periodic visits to butchery for analysing each
and every part of the animal, demonstration
farms in other states for improved practices
in dairying and so on.
Working with dairy farmers
The company works with the farmers exist-
ing animals which have low productivity.
Most of the farmers have two to three ani-
mals, mostly buffaloes. Traditionally, cattle
has been a part of crop husbandry but due
to lack of milk- marketing arrangements and
limited cash flows, the care of animals and
investments in animals has been low. Earlier,
milk was for home consumption only. Since
farmers had to manage all productive and
non-productive animals with the existing
cash flows, feeding and other care was not
optimal. The company is encouraging farm-
ers to adopt better rearing practices to invest
more in the existing animals to enhance
their productivity.
The emphasis of company’s services is on
improving the yield of all existing animals
rather than introducing high breed cattle
from other states/areas. If a small farmer
buys a high yielding cross-bred animal/
buffalo, they face problems inmanaging the
animals and even in handling andmarketing
of milk. The company expects sustainable
livelihoods for farmers over a five-year
time frame.
Farmer services
Training to farmers
•
In partnership with the NSDC, SCMPL
provides skill-based training to farm-
ers for upgrading their skills related
to dairy farming. A sister company—
Sahayog micromanagement, a section
25 company—has taken soft loan from
NSDC which is repayable in 10 years.
This capacity building training is also
not subsidised but built into the busi-
ness model and repayment comes from
the milk company on the basis of the
milk handled.
•
Since the start of the programme, over
13,000 farmers have been trained.
•
While men have been targeted for train-
ings, so far the company is planning
to impart training to women from the
current year.
•
An extensive three-day training pro-
gramme for farmers is conducted
wherein knowledge and information
is passed down to farmers about clean
milk production in addition to cattle
management, breeding and feeding.
The company spends about
`
1,000 on
training one farmer.
•
Within the next three years, SCMPL
intends to train more than 75,000
farmers. SCMPL also strives to build the
capacity of the existing PMCs through
training programmes and veterinary
services.
AI services
•
SCMPL’sparavet team serves more
than 400 villages across Harda, Dewas,
Hoshangabad, Khandwa and Sehore dis-
tricts. The emphasis is on improving the
