AN OVERVIEW OF THE “ANAND MODEL” AND “OPERATION FLOOD”

Operation flood was an attempt to create a revolution in a system where nothing usually works. Talking about it at a time when humans are killed in the name of cow and cattle seems interesting know?

After reading the biography of Varghese Kurien, “I too had a dream”, I seriously felt like changing my idea about the keys to success. He was just a lazy lad and he really disliked his job in a remote village of Anand in Gujarat. Those settings were really new to him. But out of no choice as he received the help from Indian Government for his education in Diary management in the US, he had to work in a place which is allotted to him by the government. Initials days were sheer struggle until he joined hands with Tribhuvandas Patel, who invented the idea of co-operatives in the Indian diary sector. The small co-operative grew up into a big brand called ‘Amul’. In the process, their main opponents were not the competitors in the diary sector. Instead it was those officials who were meant to facilitate the diary sector. Tribhuvandas Patel was a real leader. He found out the capacity of a man like Kurien and the capacity of the system of co-operatives. Once he gave the responsibilities to Kurien, he believed in Kurien to the maximum possible extent and he tried his best to provide whatever Kurien demanded including the costly machineries. There were machines which was bought by collecting one rupee each from every single farmer! They became successful in making milk powder from buffalo milk in India for the first time.

Amul as a company had to compete with a number of strong players. Having no experience in this field, Kurien was aware about the scope of a market and the art of marketing. The image of Amul baby still signifies the power of an effective marketing strategy. All these happened at a time when India as a country was just crawling in her knees in terms of development. Amul acquired the faith of masses through low pricing and good quality. Amul finally cleared other players like Polson, Nestle etc. from the scene itself. In the end, they even started exporting milk products to the markets of New Zealand. Even now it’s hard to believe that all of this was achieved by a farmer co-operative and not a multi-national corporation. The experiences in New Zealand really helped Kurien as he understood that co-operatives is the best way to manage the dairy industry in any part of the world. It was the system prevalent in almost all milk exporting countries. Still the politicians, bureaucracy and the academicians were cynical of this venture. He was criticized a lot saying that the whole intervention means diverting the food for human beings to the cattle.

Once Lal Bahadur Shastri decided to implement the Anand model in every state, the bureaucracy opposed this with all its power. The National Diary Development Board was formed as an autonomous body to implement this model in different states. One peculiar feature of this model was that the small farmers were the real beneficiaries. They collectively owned whatever machinery or infrastructure the co-operatives had and the share of profits always reached their hands. This was a major factor which helped in the increase of production. By the time of Indira Gandhi, India became a surplus country in milk. India got support from World Bank for this project and it was an amazing fact at that time before the world that someone from a minority religion has been given the full responsibility of implementation. That’s the kind of diversity and respect for diversity which India possesses. Analysing this initiative from a different perspective, it is a perfect example of doing wonders working as part of government machinery. Most of us are really pessimistic about working in a govt. sector apart from the lucrative benefits which may accrue from it. Once someone gains the respect and faith, the usual troubles put forward by Red Tapism or corruption can’t stop them. Varghese Kurien is one example. A contemporary example of this is Metro man E Sreedharan. There was a time in Kerala where the opposition parties jointly said we’ll support the Kochi metro rail project only if E Sreedharan heads it. That was the kind of belief he had earned through the projects like Konkan railway and Delhi metro.

Looking back at the criticisms Operation flood had faced, we should say that it was an intervention at the right time, on a right situation. It may seem as if an intervention with loopholes now, but at that time it helped in an inclusive and overall development of the rural India. Farmers got more profit out of diary cultivation and the women in the family also started earning money out of this. Free service of veterinary doctors at different stages and the localised milk collection are few of the different ways in which the initiative was supportive of the farmers. Farmers were not troubled for the low quality milk in the summer season. By taking the farmers into belief, Amul, a farmers co-operative, became the biggest corporate in the Indian diary industry. Operation flood was initiated from a realization that a single company like Amul won’t be able to feed a whole country like India. Cross breeding strategies, development of green fodder and inclusion of edible stuff in the ingredients of fodder are the few things which attracted the criticism of academic world. But considering the fact that we don’t had a better alternative in front of us and Operation flood at any stage did not bow its back to accommodate the interests of developed world, it does not deserve criticism. It accepted only those help without strings and the intervention helped in increasing the availability of milk for the vulnerable groups. But the idea of rural milk being served among urban centers seems a bit problematic. After all, in a country, where few right wing organizations brand Cow as their mother goddess and at the same time doing nothing for the development of this sector, these kind of interventions will stand out. If you say cow is your mother then comes a question whether you will sell your mother’s breast milk in a nearby tea shop once u grew up?!. Operation flood was not conceptualised from a model which the developed western world asked us to adopt. But we reaped benefits out of it without much aftermaths and that is the real success of this intervention.