Moo’s the word in cow belt

Dayasagar, 45, owns a cow. To increase his income, he plans to buy another cow. ‘‘One cow produced enough milk for me to buy a colour television last year.

* Dayasagar, 45, owns a cow. To increase his income, he plans to buy another cow. ‘‘One cow produced enough milk for me to buy a colour television last year. With two cows, I may be able to afford a cooler next summer,’’ he says.

* Ram Krishna Manjhi, 39, too, sells the milk produced by his cows. He also wears Reeboks and carries a cellphone. Now he has his sights set on a fridge. ‘‘I have tonnes of cowdung. I plan to sell it and buy another cow—that will allow me to buy a fridge,’’ he says.

* Sancharia Devi, 33, owns four cows. ‘‘By selling their milk, I hope to earn enough to educate my only son in Delhi,’’ she says.

DAYASAGAR, Ram Krishna and Sancharia Devi are just three pointers to the quiet white revolution unfolding in Jharkhand. About 250 farmers across Ranchi, Chatra and Hazaribagh districts have hit the milk route after being shown the way by Shiv Narayan Sahu, a resident of Gangutoli village on the outskirts of Ranchi district.

At the moment, Sahu, 56, is busy supervising the construction of an underground cold storage and a state-of-the-art dairy plant. The Rs 7-crore project is being financed by NABARD and the State Bank of India.

And not for nothing. Sahu, who was adjudged the ‘Sarvasreshtha Kisan’ by the state government in 2003, and bagged the prestigious Vardaan-IFPRI award for innovative farming earlier this year, created waves in the agriculture sector of the state by eliminating middlemen in buying farmers’ produce.

‘‘Somebody had to provide them the market. Because of god’s blessings, it was me,’’ says Sahu.

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After launching his dairy business with just two cows and 10-15 litres of milk a day in 1983, Sahu today owns 350 cows and 125 buffaloes that produce 3,000-3,500 litres of milk daily. Besides, he buys the milk produced by 250-odd farmers—including Dayasagar and the others—for between Rs 12-14/litre.

‘‘He pays us in cash, often in advance. He even lends us money to buy feed at a nominal one-two per cent interest every month,’’ says Dayasagar.

And what does Sahu do with so much milk? He supplies it to hotel kitchens in Ranchi through the year for Rs 18/litre—a price cheaper than the hotels can tap elsewhere. At the moment, he has a waiting list of a dozen dhabas and restaurants in Ranchi who want him to supply them milk.

Part of the reason for Sahu’s success lies in his farsighted reading of the demand-supply economics. As of now, the state capital drinks up 60,000 litres of milk a day.

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The Bihar government-run dairy Sudha—its plant is close to the Hotwar village, close to the state border—provides about 40,000 litres of pasteurised milk a day. With demand projected to cross 100,000 litres a day, Sahu and his army of farmers have a lot to look forward to.

‘‘We are planning to adopt a brandname, ‘Kisan’, later this year. I’m sure ‘Sudha’ will have competition,’’ boasts Sahu.

He’s not the only one who’s excited. The Union ministry of food processing has nominated him as a member of its committee to boost dairy farming in Jharkhand.

NABARD, too, is backing him all the way. ‘‘The (under-construction) dairy plant is not only a demonstration unit for the farmers but also for bankers keen to finance agricultural investment,’’ says K R Rao, general manager (animal husbandry division), NABARD.
WHAT

Sugar

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In the news for all the wrong reasons. Sugar prices have risen by over 18 per cent to Rs 22 per kg at the retail level.

WHY

Shortfall

Production has taken a hit in Brazil, Cuba, Thailand and European countries. Indian companies, buoyed with a projected 42-46 per cent increase in production (180-185 lakh tonnes, compared to 127.15 lakh tonnes in 2004-05) are queuing up to tap the lucrative markets abroad. So, domestic prices have shot up.

WHERE

EU, Brazil, Thailand

Have changed policy and and practice. The EU has cut subsidies to farmers, companies in Brazil, Thailand and elsewhere are shifting production to ethanol, hitting the quantum available for export.

The 6th What Next

• The world market will fall short of about 4 million tonnes of white sugar. No country other than India can fill the gap over the next couple of years.

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• It’s effectively a wake-up call for the government. The Centre, which was earlier planning to free sugar exports, has now ordered State Trading Corporation to stop exports immediately. The move is expected to cool off prices.

• By April, sugar companies had already struck deals to export 4 lakh tonnes of refined sugar under export obligation (the condition under which they import cheap raw sugar to work their mills) at higher prices.

• But traders say sugar prices have already mellowed on the futures market. Sushil Sinha, regional head, Karvy Commodities, says the June sugar contract on NCDEX fell from Rs 2030 on March 2 to Rs 1930 on May 10.