KOLKATA: In a significant stride to bring more women dairy farmers particularly those hailing from the remote islands of the Sunderbans in the milk supply and marketing network, the Sunderban Co-operative Milk and Livestock Producers Ltd (SCMLPL) that offers milk and a plethora of milk-based products under the brand name ‘Sundarini Naturals’ will be providing milk coolers for long duration preservation.
Presently, 5000 odd farmers are bearing fruits from the procurement, supply and sales network.
Reaching to a wider network has remained a distant dream for the dairy farmers because of the communication challenges. The shelf life of the ‘Sundarini Naturals’ milk is less than three hours and overcoming the hurdles of riverine route like flow tide, ebb tide which is intrinsically linked to the movement of vessels, farmers hailing from the interior islands of the Sunderbans were compelled to sell their milk only in adjacent areas and wastage has been a major concern.
After taking charge of the department in 2021, Sunderban Affairs minister Bankim Hazra had played a key role in bringing more women from the remote islands of Patharpratima, Sagar, Gosaba, Mousuni in the supply and selling chain.
“We will be soon providing ice integrated bulk milk coolers capable of preserving 200 litres of milk to all the 70 societies of the dairy farmers, however, even a minimum quantity of milk can be preserved The voltage issue will not be a deterrent in its normal functioning. Natural calamities leading to disruption of electricity which is quite regular in the archipelago can also be tackled by these machines which is capable of providing two days back up,”a senior official of SCMLPL said.
In this project, a specially designed milk can will also be provided which will restore the chilled temperature of milk for 5 hours during the transportation process. The total project will entail an investment of Rs 5.77 crore and at least another 5000 dairy farmers will reap the benefits of Sundarini’s supply chain.
Sundarini, a brainchild of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was rolled out to empower the women of Sunderbans in the year 2015. It started with packaged milk but now it has done away with packaged milk and sells milk in glass bottles.
The Cooperative scores over others for its organic method adopted in every step right from milk collection, transportation to its dairy plant and then manufacture of milk products.