Amul MD Jayen Mehta. (file photo)
TV9 Bharatvarsh has a special conversation with Jayen Mehta, Managing Director (MD) of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Limited (GCMMF) on India’s deals with America, New Zealand as well as other global partners. He openly expressed his opinion on all the questions arising regarding this deal. He clearly said that this trade deal will greatly benefit the farmers of the country and especially the dairy sector.
Jayen Mehta said that first of all, I express my gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the country’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal for the trade deal recently signed between India and America. He has protected the country’s agriculture and dairy sector by making a very good trade deal. It has two benefits. In our US exports, the duty which was 50% was reduced to 18%.
He said that America’s intention was to bring its dairy products to our country, especially all agricultural products have been blocked. So our dairy sector, with which 8 to 10 crore families are associated, has become completely safe from this and with the new market access and the tariffs being reduced there, our opportunities have increased.
Is it an opportunity or a challenging time?
Is there a big opportunity for farmers after this deal or is it a challenging time? On this question, Jayen Mehta said that this is a big opportunity for us because India is the number one milk producing country in the world and 1/4 of the world’s milk production is taking place in India. According to the production growth of our country and the production growth of the world’s producers, in the next 10 years, 1/3 of the world’s milk production will be in India.
He told that PM Modi’s vision is that there should be a food item from India on every dining table in the world. So, there is a huge global opportunity for our agriculture, food processing and dairy sectors to attract the customers in the world markets also. Let us participate in the progress of the milk that we have, which is being produced by the hard work of crores of cattle farmers, by giving them a good market.
Amul MD Jayen Mehta said that today there are milk markets in about 2 lakh villages in India. So whatever work was done in the last 50 years is now going to be done in the next 5 to 10 years. So more and more milk will come to the organized sector and cooperative sector. If money goes into women’s bank accounts, then obviously there will be progress at the rural level. Now the desire of all of us to make India a developed economy can be fulfilled very soon.
India is the largest producer of milk
On the question of connecting farmers with better technology, he said that if farmers are connected with technology, efficiency will also increase and profits and returns will also increase. If we look at the previous figures, we have been able to prove this. Jayen Mehta said that Amul has also done a lot of work on Artificial Intelligence. Now, if the cattle farmer has to give any suggestion, suggestion and conversation about the breed of his cow, its feeding, then this work can be done 24 hours 365 days through our AI model.
After this deal, will the cooperative backbone of India become stronger or will the pressure at the global level increase? On this question, Jayen Mehta said that the testing time has passed and our government faced it with great courage and kept our agricultural sector safe. Now talking about cooperatives and Amul, I am happy to tell that last year itself the International Cooperative Alliance named Amul as the number one cooperative organization in the world.
He said that through such deals and the work being done in the cooperative sector, it is being made multidimensional. Taking it to new areas. We are launching cooperatives in new sectors. If you look even today, more than 30 crore people are associated with cooperatives. There are already 7-8 lakh cooperatives in our country and the number of dairy cooperatives is going to double.
If cooperation is strong then our rural economy will be strong. Women will be empowered and milk production will naturally increase. Due to which the price of milk production will also increase, then the future of the farmers will be good.
Will farmers learn to fight?
Will there be a flood in the market after this deal or will farmers learn to fight a different battle? On this, Jayen said that our farmers have learned that they can face any competition by creating a brand. Amul is a big example. The turnover of Amul brand is 90 thousand crores. It is the country’s largest food and FMCG brand. So facing competition is in our DNA.
When farmers launched this brand through this cooperative organization 80 years ago, we can see its results today. So farmers are not afraid of competition. He said that what PM Modi has done will further improve the system in the country and if farmers feel safe then they will work hard and also increase milk production. Will also earn profits.
On the question of how Amul will protect its ownership in this global dairy race, he said that Amul’s ownership is protected because it is an organization of 36 lakh farmers. We have 36 lakh farmers in 18,600 villages of Gujarat who are producers and they have created this Amul brand. So this organization is running through cooperative. So whatever happens, the medium of cooperation will remain and will continue to grow.
How will Amul benefit from this deal?
Referring to the strength of the cooperative model, Jayen Mehta said that 36 lakh farmer families and milk markets of 18,600 villages of Gujarat are connected with Amul alone. The Indian government refused to allow open access to the Indian dairy market to the world’s largest milk producing countries and groups such as the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand during trade negotiations.
According to Jayen Mehta, India is the largest market in the world with a population of 150 crores and being self-reliant in it is our biggest achievement. Although the US has been given limited market access for some select agricultural products such as apples and walnuts, the principle of ‘no means no’ has been strictly followed in the dairy sector.
Talking about the future of Amul, he said that it was very difficult to establish cooperation with foreign brands and private traders. But then we got the visionary leadership of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Today we are getting the visionary leadership of PM Modi and Amit Shah. It also goes to the credit of women that they are increasing their livelihood by working hard day and night and they are also getting empowered by this model. He said that the future of the cooperative dairy industry is bright and Amul is working hard to serve its farmers as much as possible.