A NEW FRESH VEGETABLE INITIATIVE-THE A.P.EXPERIMENT

If there is one single initiative any government has taken recently benefiting the farmer and the consumer equally, it is the recent program launched in Andhra Pradesh by the Horticulture Department of the state for delivering fresh vegetables at the door steps of the families. The beauty of the program is that there are triple beneficiaries all getting a fair deal under the arrangements put in place. Farmers in villages are divided into clusters, with each cluster being assigned to an entrepreneur who is equipped with specially designed vans to collect and bring to different colonies in cities nearby. This is an example of how well intentioned, soundly designed and efficiently executed public programs can serve the communities well and reduce the impact of uncertainties and fluctuations in prices commonly experienced these days due to the brutal middlemen who exploit both the farmer and the consumer for his self interest. Here is a take on this approach of A. P. government which needs to be congratulated for the citizen friendly program that enables people to get access to the protective foods so necessary for protecting health.  

"The 'Farm Fresh Vegetables on Wheels'  launched by the Department of Horticulture involving clusters of farmers and farming entrepreneurs is catching up with the citizens of the city welcoming it. The state-wide programme launched on March 18 in the city had been formulated with farmers groups in a village formed into a cluster. The farmers in the cluster supply freshly harvested vegetables to the Horticulture entrepreneurs who are either from among the families of the farmers or an outsider, who collects vegetables in the early hours of each day from the vegetable farms and carry them in his specially designed mobile vegetable sales outlet given by the department of Horticulture. The posh looking mobile outlet is given on a subsidy of Rs.2 lakh out of a total cost of Rs.5.3 lakh. A loudspeaker is fitted to the vehicle and a recorded message announces the arrival of the vehicle at the residential colonies. The entrepreneur brings the vegetables to the city by 9 a.m. to the designated residential localities. One of the entrepreneurs selected by the department Nagi Reddy Sathyanarayana told The Hindu that he hailed from Adduru village in Chodavaram mandal. He is also a vegetable farmer and part of the cluster of farmers in his village. Nagi Reddy sells vegetables in the posh residential colony of Waltair Uplands and is quite happy with the success of the scheme. Local resident Mercy Paul, a regular customer at the outlet said that she was very happy with the quality of vegetables. They are fresh and fine. The prices appear to be higher than Rythu Bazzar but the vegetables are arriving at our doorstep, she adds. As the mobile outlet arrives women can be seen grabbing the fresh vegetables".

Since the program has been launched very recently it may take some time before a value judgment regarding its efficacy or impact can be made though involvement of private entrepreneurs can definitely give it a fair chance of success. One cannot forget the Fruit and Vegetable initiative taken way back in 1980s under the NDDB umbrella which promised many things but could not manage a pan India foot print so far for many reasons. This responsibility undertaken while Dr Verghese Kurien was alive, was entrusted to NDDB because of its vast experience in organizing milk cooperatives which contributed in no small measure to the roaring success in the form of White Revolution. In a smaller way HOPCOMS in Karnataka organized fruit and vegetable vending kiosks in many urban areas in the state with active participation by the Horticulture Department and this program also could not show any dramatic results as reflected by the poor condition under which many vegetable vending kiosks in most cities work to day. The novelty of the A P Scheme is that the fresh commodity is delivered in a prime condition to the house holds at reasonable prices and if the new initiative really succeeds, it can be a model that can be replicated all over the country with great relief to the much harassed consumer and badly exploited farmers!   

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

GLUT IN MILK BUT POVERTY OF IDEAS TO MANAGE!-ANDHRA'S WOES

Milk is considered the most valuable nutritive food available to all those not consuming meat, egg and fish in their daily diet and as per the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi, "Milk and Honey" must flow in his ideally conceived "Ramarajya"! Till the arrival of that Titan late Dr Varghese  Kurien on the scene, milk availability ad libitum to Indian citizens always remained a distant dream. Now that what was considered not achievable once has been achieved through the well lauded Operation  Flood program ushered in by Dr Kurien, the country seems to be faced with a new challenge-the "problem of plenty"! Look at the report from Andhra Pradesh where over 1.7 lakh liters of excess milk collected by the state milk federation find no buyers putting the authorities in a dilemma regarding disposal of this milk. Is it not strange that in an age when technological solutions are on the table for solving any food related problems, the federation is throwing up its hands not having any clue as to how this contingency can be handled. Here is a take on this ironical situation.   

"Usually there are problems with shortages. But in the case of A.P. Dairy Development Cooperative Federation (APDDCF) the opposite is true. It is faced with the unique problem of glut of milk so much so that it doesn't know where to store all the milk that is coming its way.Everyday the Federation is left with an extra 1.70 lakh litres to handle which it simply can't. Therefore, it is toying with the idea of declaring a 'milk holiday' once in a fortnight.The idea is not to procure milk two days in a month so as to take care of storage problem and also the rising cost of procurement. The proposal will be placed before the APDDCF board to get its nod. The last time the Federation declared a milk holiday was in 1993. The APDDCF has been flooded with surplus milk from September onwards. The per day procurement shot up from 3.90 lakh litres in August to 4.69 lakh litres in September. It touched 5.27 lakh litres in October and 5.93 lakh litres in November. In December, milk procurement is projected to be 6.29 lakh litres. Faced with this unusual phenomenon, the Federation has started converting the excess milk into skimmed milk powder (SMP). "We are doing all this only to not inconvenience farmers," says Mohammed Ali Rafath, managing director and vice chairman, APDDCF. Unlike private diaries, the APDDCF is procuring milk beyond its requirement to help the farmers. Its factory has a capacity to handle only 4 lakh litres a day, including 30,000 litres of by-products such as flavoured milk, butter, khova, lassi. In the last few months it has been getting an extra 1.70 lakh litres milk per day. Of this, 1.02 lakh litres is buffalo milk and the rest cow. To procure this excess milk, it has to shell out Rs.41 lakh per day. To tide over the problem, the APDDCF has started converting the milk into powder and now it has a stock of 1,000 metric tonnes of butter and 800 metric tonnes of skimmed milk powder. To clear this stockpile, the Federation has asked the Women Development and Child Welfare Department to use its powder milk in its programme of supplying cooked food to pregnant and lactating mothers. "This way we hope to supply 100 tonnes of skimmed milk powder per month", says Mr. Rafath. The excess milk production is the result of milch animal induction programme wherein the government provides 25 per cent subsidy on purchase of cattle and also reimburses transport charges. Another factor is the vigorous artificial insemination programme taken up by the Animal Husbandry Department. Why can't the APDDCF push up its sales? It cannot because there are no takers for its Vijay brand of milk. While Hyderabad has a liquid milk market of 12 lakh litres a day, APDDCF accounts for just 3.60 lakh litres a day. Now the APDDCF is planning to develop forward linkages by strengthening its district market where the sales are very dismal".

One of the objectives of Operation Flood was to create a milk grid with the avowed intention of helping to create a linkage between the production hubs and consumption centers. Why the Andhra milk federation is not able to make use of this to send milk to those places suffering from shortage or sending it to milk processing centers having powder making facilities is not clearly understood. It is unfortunate that the country is failing again its farmers after the food grain fiasco for which the Supreme Court had to intervene to stop rotting of procured grains, improperly stored. The federation boast that after all it is procuring all the milk offered by its farmers, cannot justify its incompetence in anticipating such a glut and making contingency arrangements to handle the surplus. Look at the sorry situation in the market where major milk powder consumers are frantically running around for securing their requirements of milk powder when country is the top most producer of fluid milk in the world!. What prevented the Federations in the states from building adequate powder making capacity to meet such eventualities? Apathy and callousness? In stead of taking fluid milk to far away villages why it is not possible to create a supply channel for milk powder at affordable prices to consumers located at such places. It is time National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) is mandated once more by Government of India, this time to deal with the surplus and bring some sanity to the sector.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com