From soaking in the eighth wonder of the world – Taj Mahal – a 48-member group of foreign delegates of World Dairy Summit 2022 moved into rural Agra, around 250 kilometers from Delhi, to the site of an Indian dairy that powered the country to the top position globally, courtesy milk producers’ organization Saahaj on September 16, 2022.
Immediately after the conclusion of the World Dairy Summit, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the delegates who were invited by the summit hosts Meenesh Shah, Chairman, National Dairy Development Board and Secretary, INC IDF – traveled to Agra to get a firsthand experience of working of small and marginal dairy farmers having up to 3 cattle, who through Saahaj, created a bulk chilling plant with a capacity of 1000 liters a day.
Welcoming the group comprising delegates from South Africa to USA and Canada to Germany, New Zealand to South Africa, Saahaj Director Sapna, on behalf of one lakh members of the organization, applied vermillion tikka and garlanded them before escorting them to dairy farmers and cattle.
At the summit, Shah was presented with the newly introduced products by the milk-producing organizations wherein he suggested the delegates visit Agra to get a first-hand experience of how the Indian Dairy sector operates in rural India.
“After sharing the sessions with you for expert discussions at the four-day long summit, we are privileged to receive you in our backyard – a backyard that has made Saahaj the biggest producer of the state and for contributing to India becoming the largest milk producer with 23 percent of the global share. We may be marginal and small, but we have pooled in resources to create a repel in the organized dairy sector,” she said.
Escorting the visitors to the nearby bulk chilling plant of Saahaj at Nanglapachori village, 40 kilometers from the historical city of Agra – Chief Executive Basant Choudhary said, “all our efforts are bearing fruits now as we collect over five lakh liters of milk a day from five lakh cattle owned by our member farmers. We clocked a turnover of about Rs. 850 crores with a profit of Rs. 12 crores last year even as we paid up to 85% of sales proceeds to the milk producers. We have reserves in surplus of over Rs. 80 crores as we target daily procurement of six lakh liters of milk to touch a topline of Rs. 970 crores.”
He informed the visitors that Saahaj not only gives the members nutrients, technical help, and artificial insemination for enhancing productivity but also is getting into branded dairy products market to create a niche for themselves. The visit ended with the hosts presenting the guests with a replica of the marble Taj Mahal as a remembrance gift from over one lakh farmer families from 10 districts of western Uttar Pradesh.
