India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of milk in the world, with 69% of India’s farming population doing dairy farming as a secondary occupation. It contributes to about ⅓ of the income of rural households and ½ of the income of landless households.
The process of collecting and transporting milk is a long one, and milk chillers are not there at every step, making it easy for bacteria to multiply fast and spoil the milk.
After milking the cows, the farmers take their milk to a Milk Collection Centre (MCC), after which a vehicle picks up milk from 6-7 different MCCs in different villages. By the time the milk finally reaches the main processing centre, it is kept in normal temperature for about 5 hours.
“We do not accept milk cans which are of low quality and there are strict norms of even banning village MCC if they repeatedly send poor quality milk.”
The village MCC is associated with a milk cooperative or private company, and is worried about a single milk input rendering the whole lot poor. The milk which may not be of good quality is sent to khoya making units or to tea shops for lower prices.
Problem Statement:
How might we enable milk chilling technologies to be available at MCCs, and ensure lesser possibility of milk spoilage to ensure farmers reap benefits from the value chain?