NATIONAL MILK DAY 🇮🇳

National Milk Day (India) : 26 November

Verghese Kurien (26 November 1921 – 9 September 2012), known as the “Father of the White Revolution” in India, was a social entrepreneur whose “billion-litre idea”, Operation Flood, made dairy farming India’s largest self-sustaining industry and the largest rural employment sector providing a third of all rural income. It made India the world’s largest milk producer, doubled the milk available for each person, and increased milk output four-fold in 30 years.

He pioneered the Anand model of dairy cooperatives and replicated it nationwide, based on various “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches, where no milk from a farmer was refused and 70–80% of the price by consumers was paid in cash to dairy farmers who controlled the marketing, procurement, and processing of milk and milk products as the dairy’s owners. An invention at Amul was the production of milk powder from buffalo milk instead of from cow milk, which was in short supply in India.

He also made India self-sufficient in edible oils and fought against the “oil kings”, who used underhanded and violent methods to enforce their dominance over the oilseed industry.

More information at: http://drkurien.com/

Happy National Milk Day!