A gendered assessment of the Mulukanoor Women’s
Cooperative Dairy value chain, Telangana, India
Kumara Swamy, Michael Blümmel, Jean-Joseph Cadilhon, Kathleen Earl
Colverson, Yerradoddi Ramana Reddy and Thanammal Ravichandran
8th International Conference of the Asian Society of Agricultural Economists (ASAE) on
Viability of Small Farmers in Asia 2014, Saver, Bangladesh, 15-17 August 2014

Contents
 Introduction
 Study area
 Research hypothesis
 Methodology
 Results
 Conclusion
 Recommendations

Context/Introduction
 Crop-livestock farming plays a major role in livelihood of rural
community in India
 90% of dairy farmers are small and marginal farmers (NSS,
2006) with less productive animals
 Poor bargaining power and lack of capital investment restrict
to link markets
 Collective way of marketing and services like cooperatives will
help them to improve livelihood
 Cooperatives played a major role in dairy development in
India for last 4 decades through operation flood program
 Women play a major role in dairy production and
management

Research Hypothesis
Gender based value chain assessment was done
To understand the gender roles and relations in the dairy
value chain (needs, status, capacities, roles and
constraints)
To formulate business expansion strategies of women
based dairy cooperative

Study area
 Mulukanoor Women Cooperative Dairy (MWCD)
 Demanded ILRI for study on gendered assessment for
business expansion
 This dairy is supporting 110 villages with 25kms radius
KARIMNAGAR DISTRICT
MAHARASHTRA STATE
CHHATTISGARH STATE
Dharmasagar
WARANGAL DISTRICT
KHAMMAM DISTRICT
ADILABAD DISTRICT
NIZAMABAD DISTRICT
MEDAK DISTRICT
NALGONDA DISTRICT
Bommakal
MWCD Kamalapur
Shanigaram
Kandugula
Chigurumamidi
Basvapur
Antakkapet
Mallampalli
Pechara
Thatikonda
Tharigoppula
www.mapsofindia.com

Methodology
F-Female, M-Male
Analysis
 Qualitative gender based analysis
 Descriptive statistics

Results

Gender roles
Area of activities Men Women
Agriculture Ploughing Sowing
Purchase inputs Weeding
Irrigation infrastructure Harvesting
Transport Threshing
Marketing Packing
Livestock Animal health Fodder collection
Breeding Feeding
Cleaning shed
Dairy animals Marketing milk Milking
Sweet manufacturing Marketing milk

Gender importance
• More labour hours by women for dairy activities than men
• Decision making- mostly combine
• High income share from milk sale by women
• High income share from cattle sale by men
• Service providers/stakeholders- paravet, veterinarian, AI/NS
service provider, sweet shops, feed seller, milk traders- Mostly
men

Existing area- dairy value chain
Dairy
producers
Own
consumption
Neighbours
Hotels
Vijaya Dairy
Nagarjuna
Dairy
MWCD
Input Marketing
Feed
Breed
Animal
health,
insurance
Extension
service
credit
MWCD
State
government
Banks
Money lenders
MWCD Insurance to women members

Informal marketing-traders
 In existing area
 Traders numbers decreased competition with MWDC
 Other livelihood options-business, transport, agriculture labour
 Most of the milk from small dairy farmers >95%

Pricing system
Existing area- good price through cooperative
Prospective area- exploitation by traders

Conclusion
 Women play a major role in dairy farming activities
 Men play major role in marketing services and service
provision- not restricting the women to sell milk or getting
service
 Cooperative system is beneficial for women for better price
and input services
 Informal marketing through traders is exploiting the farmers
 High value added products like sweet from Khoa are from
rain-fed area

Recommendations
 Increase the procurement- expansion of area 5-10 km or open
membership for men (non-members in existing area- but no
compromise on women empowerment)
 Feed related interventions need improvement (fodder seed,
feed unit expansion, chopping the fodder)
 Long term business agreement with sweet manufacturers
 Supply milk to other cities and 24 hrs. milk booths
 Comparison study for decision making and impact - women
only & mixed cooperatives

Acknowledgements
This work was undertaken as part of, and funded by, the CGIAR
Research Program on Livestock and Fish, led by the International
Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and by the CGIAR Research
Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) led by the
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). This
presentation has not gone through IFPRI’s standard peer-review
procedure. The opinions expressed here belong to the authors,
and do not necessarily reflect those of PIM, IFPRI, or CGIAR