Production procurement and marketing of milk a study with reference to kanyakumari district cooperative milk producers union

Abstract

At Global level, milk has been identified as an integral part of the food for centuries. Milk is very essential for our life and it has good nutritive value and also rich in fat. Milk and the products are the indispensable supplement to the staple food, which forms an integral part of the present civilized existence. Indian economy is mainly based on agriculture nearly 80 per cent of the population is engaged directly in it. But agriculture alone is unable to provide necessary employment, income and creation of assets to the people. Hence dairying constitute an important activity of the rural population mostly as a subsidiary occupation. In India more than 80 per cent of the cattle population in rural areas and about 76 per cent of the rural population is contributing towards milk production. India ranks first in the world milk production. Out of the total Indian Agriculture population, 60 per cent of them owned milch animals either for their main occupation or subsidiary occupation. Since the introduction of White Revolution, the milk production geared up many number of times with the implementation of different schemes and various approaches under the category. Milk being the perishable commodity requires quick delivery for processing. The main problem in the study area i.e. Kanyakumari district are the farmers who own milch animals and the cattle rearers forced to sell their milk to the private traders, vendors and the consumers. With the development of the milk producersand#146; co-operative societies in the rural and semi-urban areas, the milk producer selling their milk to the societies. The co-operative rendered various kinds of services to their members for increasing the milk production and for fetching better prices for their milk sold. Milk producers in this district faces a lot of problems while production and marketing of milk. The objectives framed for this study are to highlight various aspects of production and procurement of milk in Kanyakumari district, to analyse the component of marketing