Context
On September 19, 2024, Union Minister Amit Shah unveiled ‘White Revolution 2.0’, a comprehensive initiative aimed at empowering women farmers and creating job opportunities in rural areas while reducing malnutrition through increased milk consumption.
Key Focus Areas of White Revolution 2.0
The White Revolution 2.0 initiative focuses on four key areas:
- Empowering women farmers
- Enhancing local milk production
- Strengthening dairy infrastructure
- Boosting dairy exports
Empowering Women Farmers
- One of the primary goals of White Revolution 2.0 is to empower women farmers who are heavily engaged in the dairy sector.
- It has the objective of assisting women and ensuring that they are empowered to produce better and increase their incomes. The Union Minister scanned that in Gujarat only, some women are creating a business of Rs 60,000 crore in the dairy segment.
- Through the issue of women employment, the government is keen on enhancing the struggles against malnutrition as well as generating new employment for the rural nation.
Increasing Milk Procurement by Cooperatives
- Under White Revolution 2.0, the government aims to increase milk procurement by dairy cooperative societies by 50% over the next five years.
- This target seems to be very achievable and is seen to greatly impact the growth of the dairy industry as well as enhancing the livelihoods of the millions of farmers in the country.
- For this purpose, the government has set up a plan to either form or develop 100,000 new and existing district cooperative societies and multi-purpose, as well as improved district cooperative societies and PACS.
- Milk routes will also be created which will be associated with the necessary physical infrastructure to facilitate the organised procurement of milk by these cooperatives.
Strengthening Dairy Infrastructure
The White Revolution 2.0 also aims at the development of the dairy infrastructure across the country. This includes:
- Construction of proper equipment for Milking, milk processing, and quality storage of milk.
- Upgrade of vehicles for easy transportation of milk.
- Having good Research and Development to improve productivity and quality.
The key objective that the government seeks to achieve through enhancing the dairy structure is to ensure that the dairy sector attains a more efficient way to increase production so as to meet the increasing demand on milk and dairy products.
Boosting Dairy Exports
- Another key aspect of White Revolution 2.0 is to boost dairy exports from India.
- The government of India understands the vast opportunities that the local dairy industry holds in terms of exporting its products and this is why they seek to exploit this opportunity.
- By doing so, the government anticipates that quality control and branding will enable it to market Indian dairy products as a premium product in the international market.
- It will also help in creating more revenue for the dairy sector, new employment and will benefit the overall economy.
Initiatives under White Revolution 2.0
To support the implementation of White Revolution 2.0, the government has launched several initiatives:
- RuPay Kisan Credit Cards for dairy farmers: This is in terms of giving the dairy farmers, interest-free cash credit through the cards making them have better control over their financial services.
- Installation of micro-ATMs at dairy cooperative societies: This will go a long way in ensuring that the farmers get the services of a bank closer to where they live, hence be able to manage their cash with ease.
- Computerization of Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS): The government has provided guidelines of computerization of PACS that has provided basic guidelines for the smooth working of the system.
- Cooperation among Cooperatives initiative: This program which was earlier implemented in Gujarat state, will be replicated across the country to bring about corporate synergy and sharing of resources.
Funding and Budget Support
- The government has assured full budgetary support for the White Revolution 2.0 initiative, recognizing it as a top priority sector.
- First, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) will finance this scheme from its own sources where possible of Rs 40,000 per multi-purpose PACS to one thousand societies of this nature.
- The formation of a number of cooperation ministries as a separate entity has the objectives of rejuvenising and overhauling the cooperation organization and to generate new employment in the sector and also to help about 130 million farmers in the country.
Conclusion
White Revolution 2.0 aims to empower women farmers, increase cooperative milk procurement, strengthen dairy infrastructure, and boost exports. The initiative seeks to create a more efficient, sustainable, and inclusive dairy sector, driving rural development. Success will depend on effective implementation, funding, and collaboration among the government, cooperatives, and farmers. With the right strategies, White Revolution 2.0 has the potential to transform the dairy sector and improve the lives of millions of women farmers and their families.
Source: The Hindu BL