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Moderated conference on rural advisory services for family farms: 1-18 December 2014

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Tue, 2 Dec 2014 14:42:38 +0100
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This is Mahesh Chander, again.



Producer organizations (POs)/Farmer associations can be handy in tailoring rural advisory services to family farms, since the members can better articulate their needs which POs can effectively meet. The dairy cooperatives in India are a wonderful example of the POs having their own livestock services delivery system. By March 2013, the milk unions in India had covered about 0.16 million village dairy cooperative societies with 15.1 million milk producer members. Extension activities are undertaken at Dairy Cooperative Society (DCS) and at milk unions to enhance active participation of the producer members and to create awareness about improved animal husbandry practices viz feeding, crossbreeding, animal management and encourage fodder production. The member farmers are able to expose themselves to various sources of awareness and skill acquisition. For instance, under farmers’ induction and orientation programme, visits to the dairy plants are arranged to demonstrate the process and disposal of the milk collected from the producers. Producers are also taken to visit the model Indian dairy cooperative units like the Anand Milk Cooperative Union (AMUL) in Gujarat and they in turn educate other dairy animal owners in their area about the practices and benefits of cooperatives. Audio-visual aids, field demonstrations, extension camps are used to explain feeding, breeding, fodder development and clean milk production practices.



Orientation of newly elected board members and capacity building of union personnel and milk producer members is a regular feature of milk unions under the overall leadership of the National Dairy Development Board, which orients and trains the board members from milk unions from across the country. Sessions on farmers’ training focuses on fair and transparent methods of milk procurement, principles of cooperation, animal management and adoption of best practices in dairying. Besides, union personnel are sensitized to the increasingly competitive environment, challenges faced by dairy cooperatives and the importance of functioning as professionally managed business enterprises. Milk unions encourage the involvement of women in leadership roles in the dairy cooperatives. Women members are encouraged to participate actively not only as members of village dairy cooperatives but also as members of the management committees and on boards of milk unions and state federations. There are all women dairy cooperatives too, which have played significant role in empowerment of women.



The experience gained in dairy cooperatives is being extended to other agricultural commodities wherein many associations/producer groups are being formed. It is, however, required that under changing scenario, these POs need to be more entrepreneurial and commercially oriented in their approach maybe in the form of Producer companies owned and managed by farmers with high level of professionalism.



For more information, see:

1. http://www.aesa-gfras.net/newsandevents.aspx?id=112  (An e-discussion on the "Role of producer organisations in strengthening extension and advisory provision in the dairy/livestock sector in India", organized by the Agricultural Extension in South Asia (AESA) in collaboration with the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) and Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS), 18th August, 2014 to 5th September, 2014).

2.  http://aesa-gfras.net/blog.aspx?id=49&title=Producer%20Organizations%20%28POs%29%20and%20extension:%20%20The%20road%20ahead  (Chander, M. 2013. Producer organizations (POs) and extension: The road ahead. 6 pp.)



Dr Mahesh Chander

Head

Division of Extension Education

Indian Veterinary research Institute, 

Izatnagar (UP) 

India

Phone +91 581 2302391, Fax: +91 581 2303284

Email: Mahesh64 (at) email.com

 

[To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] For further information, see http://www.fao.org/nr/research-extension-systems/res-home/news/detail/en/c/264776/  



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