Ramilaben
Govindbhai Patel hasn't been to college. But at 43, she earns what
some CEOs take home. Nothing fancy here. She milks cows every day
and supplies milk to a dairy co-operative. She milked Rs 1.10 crore
- Rs 1,10,17,675 - net profit in 2011-12, to be precise!
At
Pentarpura village in Sabarkantha district, Ramilaben's dairy farm
churns out 5.55 lakh litres of milk per annum. What had started as a
backyard business in 2000 is now a full-fledged family business. She
is an outstanding success story of the change the White Revolution
has brought about in Amul capital.
Twelve
years ago, Ramilaben registered herself as a primary milk producer
at Pentarpura's dudh mandali (village level milk society) and took
a bank loan for five cross-bred cows. Today, she runs 'Jai Ranchod
Dudh Utpadan Kendra', which is a five-acre home to 280 cattle where
40 workers get employment, even though the farm has four automatic
milking machines.
She
and her husband Govindbhai visited israel last year to finalise
plans to set up a calf-rearing farm alongside a fully computerized
'tabela'.
"Our
farm has 24-hour water, cooling system, fodder chaffing machines
and other things but we now want to adopt Israeli technology where
rotary units will milk cows automatically and also indicate the fat
content," says Ramilaben. The modernization will cost Rs 1
crore.
Ramilaben
is an inspiration to other women in Gujarat who are the backbone of
the dairy industry. Out of the total 16,117 milk societies, 2,124
are run by women. Of the 31.8 lakh members in 15 district unions,
8.2 lakh are women.
"A
quarter of our total members are women but their contribution to
the productivity of the dairy sector is much more," says R S
Sodhi, managing director of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing
Federation (GCMMF) that markets the brand Amul.
Article Credit:http://jaygujaratgarvi.blogspot.in/2012/07/gujarat-woman-milking-millions-in-dairy.html
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