Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Satnam Singh Mann and his group of dairy farmers are easily fielding a volley of questions from management students at Punjab Agricultural University.
And as students lap up the tips offered on milk prices,marketing strategies,profit percentage and more,one cant help but marvel at these 12 dairy farmers who have chosen to be more than just milk producers they not only adopted innovative techniques of dairy farming but also began aggressive marketing of their products.
Maintaining a constant touch with organisations like Agriculture Technology and Management Agency ATMA,Punjab Agricultural Management and Extension Training Institute PAMETI and Punjab Agricultural University made things easier for them.
Mann,who hails from village Shehzaad Nangal,says,Till 2007,we were simple dairy farmers with small herds of cattle whose milk we supplied to private traders. While on the face of it we were doing business,but our accounts showed that we were not even meeting our input costs. It was here that the local ATMA team brought us together,12 of us from different but nearby villages. Each of us had 10 to 25 milch animals.
A chain of events unfolded thereafter. Gurdev Singh of village Maan Kaur Singh,who is also a part of this group,said,We began with pooling in milk produced at our farms. While we sold a major quantity of the milk in the market,we also began experimenting for value addition. The group gradually diversified its products: from paneer,khoya,butter,
seven types of lassi to various types of flavoured milk,and even sweets during the wedding season.
The group has named itself Mann Dairy Farmers Interest Group.
The way profits pour in is explained by Satnam Singh thus,Earlier,for cows milk we were paid 40 paise per gram of fat,which now fetches us anything between Rs 3 to Rs 3.60 per gram. Similar are the prices of buffalo milk. Moreover,milk products fetch us hefty income.
The group,however,needs to iron out some marketing issues like opening more milk booths in the area.
We have sought permission from the concerned authorities to allow us to open a milk booth in the mini secretariat. Similar booths could be opened near the bus stand and other markets, said Harjinder Singh,another group member who hails from Gurdaspur city.
