Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | A visionary who fathered the Amul baby

A visionary who fathered the Amul baby

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Sep 10, 2012   modified Modified on Sep 10, 2012
-The Times of India

The Syrian Christian who could not speak Gujarati found it difficult to find a paying guest accommodation when he first reached the city of his destiny, Anand. But soon, Verghese Kurien would turn the small Gujarat town into the heart of India's white revolution. In the process, Kurien would also stitch together a cooperative movement of millions of women and farmers into owning a brand which generations of Indians would be unable to forget — Amul.

His model of cooperative dairy development today links over 10 million farmers at 200 dairies across India producing over 20 million litres of milk every day — a feat many other countries have copied but never at the same scale of success.

Kurien had left a lucrative job to join a small-time dairy cooperative in Anand in 1949. At that time, the cooperative he joined managed just a few hundred litres of milk a day. By the time Kurien was ready to hand over the baton in 2006, the Amul brand was selling over 90 lakh litres a day. Awarded the Padma Vibhushan, Magsaysay Award besides numerous other accolades, Kurien gained respect and space to run the cooperative movement as he knew best. "His greatest contribution was to give a position of pre-eminence to the farmer and his or her interests rather than those of middlemen," PM Manmohan Singh said.

Kurien, born in Kozhikode in 1921, leaves behind a legacy that outstrips his image as India's milkman. This extraordinary agent of social transformation as chairman of the National Dairy Development Board began 'Operation Flood' that spanned 26 years and eventually ushered in the white revolution. He began it all by turning buffalo milk into milk powder: a feat that experts worldwide at that time thought was not possible.

His model of cooperatives spun networks of farmers that first brought milk from Gujarat to Mumbai and then hooked up farmers across several states into the milk revolution. The business multiplied in areas beyond milk — bringing a sense of ownership and control to farmers. The success of 'Operation Flood' led to 'Operation Goldenflow' which replicated the Amul model in the edible oil business linking more than a million farmers yet again. Many developing countries replicated the success of Amul over time with experts pouring into Anand to learn how communities could be empowered through Kurien's mantras.

Kurien also set up the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, which has produced some of the best brains working on rural development and remains a unique institution.

It would be hard to find the right phrase to fit Kurien — an entrepreneur of world repute, a genius or as Nobel laureate Norman E Borlaug remembered him, "one of world's great agricultural leaders of this century".

The Times of India, 10 September, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/A-visionary-who-fathered-the-Amul-baby/articleshow/16329976.cms


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close