Role of Dairy Cooperatives in Strengthening Value Chain of Liquid Milk and its Sustainability in Karnataka: Findings from Preliminary Study

Cooperatives play an important role in achieving and strengthening the sustainability of dairy value chain. In developing countries like India most of the small, marginal and landless farmers are engaged in dairying for their livelihood and hence there is a dire need to strengthen the milk value chain for effective and efficient performance. The present study has been carried out in Bengaluru rural district of Karnataka to analyze the existing scenario of value chain in liquid milk for suggesting policy interventions to strengthen and sustain its performance. Chain wide learning indicated the importance of dairy cooperatives in providing inputs and technical services to farmers as well as integrating production to processing. The study documented the strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats for chain actors and finally concluded that synergy between the stakeholders right from input supply to distribution with cooperatives as chain leader will improve the performance and sustainability.