J&K State Rural Livelihoods Mission having mandate to reach out to all the poor families, link them to livelihoods opportunities and nurture them till they come out of poverty is implementing project in the state under the name “ UMEED”. The Mission aims to reduce poverty in the state by building strong grassroots institutions of the poor, engage them into gainful livelihoods interventions and ensure appreciable improvement in their income on a sustainable basis. In the year 2016, a new dairy based developmental initiative was started in J&K with active collaboration of J&K Milk Producers Co-operative Limited (JKMPCL).Under this initiative, it was envisioned to transform the Women Self Help Groups organized under JKSRLM into Women dairy Co-operative Societies having village level milk collection booths. In order to bring greater transparency and accountability in the system. Automatic Milk collection systems were installed at these newly organized societies. These Automatic Milk Collection Booths are owned and managed by members of Self Help Groups (SHGs) in a village. Each booth has an Automatic Milk Collection System (AMCS) which includes Personal Computer with milk procurement software, automatic FAT determination machine, weighing scale and UPS/battery, used for testing and maintenance of records.
The pilot project of this initiative started from Block Basohli of district Kathua in April ,2016 and accordingly SHG based automated milk collection booths were established. The pilot project was successful and in December,2016, Chief Minister Ms. Mehbooba Mufti sanctioned 200 such systems for various blocks across the State. 206 nos. of ‘Automatic Milk Collection Booths’ in different village organizations(village level apex body of SHGs) across Jammu and Kashmir have been established so far.In Jammu Division, seventy nine booths have been established in five districts & in six blocks namely, Basohli, Gaghwal, Bishnah, Dansal ,Kalakote & Marh . The Self Help Groups of these blocks associated with the project have procured 3.95 lakh kgs of milk from 1900 milk producers. Average daily milk procurement being reported is 1870 Kgs per day.The SHGs have reported turnover of Rs 1.28 crores.
Further these booths have provided employment to more than 63 women members of SHGs as AMCS operators and 05 SHG members from different blocks have been recruited on JKMPCL pay roll as AMCS technicians for maintenance of these milk collection systems. With AMCS, milk producers are getting printed information on the quality of their milk, its rate and total amount on real time basis. The process facilitates transparency, accountability and reliability in the system which will further translate into more milk production and increased revenue generation for the members. So far, the initiatives have touched more than 2300 households across the Jammu Division.Since the SHG members have invested institutional finance of Rs 49 crores in livestock sector, the marketing support from the JKMPCL has given fillip to the dairy activities. The Mission further plans to expand the outreach of the program to other blocks as well which are having milk availability so that the farmers & milk producers can get remunerative price as well as earn income at their doorsteps without the involvement of middlemen.