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Hindustan Lever built a dairy products factory
in 1963 at Etah, north-east of Agra in the fertile,
alluvial Ganges plain. But, although Etah district
had 700,000 cattle, they were mainly low-yielding
buffaloes and farmers did not offer enough milk to
make the dairy viable.
The company tried offering interest-free loans
to buy better buffaloes. It gave out milk cans and
bicycles. It offered to refinance loans from milk
and ghee (clarified butter) traders to whom farmers
were bonded to supply milk.
None of this worked. In 1974 it decided to sell
the dairy. However, the Uttar Pradesh government
and the dairy employees persuaded it not to do
so.
Hindustan Lever slimmed the dairy staff,
disbanded its fleet of tanker lorries and closed
inefficient milk collection centres. But it still
needed more milk to make its skimmed milk powder,
dairy whitener and ghee. It sent five agriculture
graduates from the Etah area to live in selected
villages and find out about life there.
They found that, in a district with over 1,000
mainly illiterate people to the square mile, most
farmers had less than a hectare of land. They had
no part in the green revolution. Though over half
the land was irrigated, they planted only one crop
a year and yields were low. They lacked access to
credit and markets.
They were not very interested in selling milk.
Even good-quality cattle did badly on crop residues
and other scraps. Half the villages were well away
from a proper road and apt to be cut off in the
monsoon.
The survey resulted in 1976 in the launch of an
integrated rural development programme (IRD) to
improve farm incomes and village health care. The
health scheme includes vaccination, family planning
and repairs to protect wells from
contamination.
Lipton India, another Unilever subsidiary, has
run the IRD programme and the dairy since 1984.
At first the farmers were sceptical about the
programme. Hindustan Lever broke the ice by sending
its management trainees into the villages for two
months each. With the villagers they plan
roadbuilding, power supplies, installing smokeless
cookers, disinfecting wells, and help farmers
obtain government aid.
One trainee set up a sewing co-operative with
girls who had been disheartened because the clothes
they made were being rejected. Over the years,
hundreds of trainees have lived in the villages,
gaining experience as well as bringing villagers
together.
IRD programme staff’s enthusiasm won farmer’s
confidence. They advised them on ways to increase
the yield and range of crops, including those
useful as both fodder and food. They introduced
castor – more valuable than rice – which can be
sown as a mixed crop with maize. Farmers earn
money, too, from seed multiplication and from lemon
grass from which citronella oil is distilled in the
villages.
Some biogas plants were installed, saving
families from the drudgery of collecting fuel.
Hindustan Lever set up a research and
development centre to solve local problems and test
new ideas, including the successful growing of
Basmata rice on reclaimed alkaline land. It offered
a better price for milk and organised village
development committees and centres which enabled
farmers, though they might have only one or two
animals, to sell milk direct rather than through
middlemen. One village farmer takes on the job of
collecting milk from others. The number of villages
providing milk has risen from an initial six to
250.
Farmers
are slowly switching to higher-yielding crossbred
cattle despite the extra care needed. Milk
collection for the diary has risen to 36,000 tonnes
in 1989 and 47,000 this year. Collection records
are computerised.
This year, Lipton India is investing 3 million
rupees (£70,000) from the dairy in the lRD
programme. This is largely run by the village
development committees.
It also offers opportunities for enterprise to
individuals. A Punjabi farmer, with IRD help,
learned how to grow crops on 100 acres of alkaline
land, a major problem in parts of the area. An IRD
worker cut the cost of citronella oil production by
suggesting fuelling the stills with used grass. A
teacher got a village road built, despite a
campaign against him and the late arrival of
government wheat, part of the payment for the
labourers.
The programme has also encouraged tree-planting.
It has sought to reach out to women despite caste
and religious difficulties.
Looking to the future, Lipton lndia expects the
number of village development centres to pass
1,100,with an increase also in cattle treatment
centres. A growing number of people will benefit
from health care, adult education and extra-income
schemes.
Lipton’s edible fats business aims to encourage
sunflower growing, using hybrid seed developed by
Hindustan Lever. There are plans for villages to
produce more citronella oil for use by Hindustan
Lever. Another plan is to supply detergents for
local sale, providing extra income for some
villagers.
Staff involved in the IRD programme feel their
efforts have helped build confidence and unleash –
the energy of a long-ignored population.
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