West Bengal Milk Cooperatives

The West Bengal Milk Cooperatives play a major role in the dairy development program in the state of West Bengal. There are a number of primary milk producers cooperative societies at the village level that, in conjugation, form milk union in the district level. These West Bengal Milk Cooperative unions carry out several activities, beneficial and necessary for milk producers' socio-economic development. The West Bengal mil cooperatives procure process and market milk and milk products and help the milk producers to develop and grow.

All the district cooperative milk producers unions in West Bengal are affiliated to the West Bengal Milk Federation. It guides and monitors the milk unions to implement the Operation Flood Project.

The Dairy Cooperative Structure in West Bengal

It's the Animal Resources Development Department (ARDD) of the government of West Bengal that controls and administers West Bengal milk cooperatives through the State Cooperative Act. The Minister, ARDD, Government of West Bengal has the complete control over the functioning of West Bengal Milk Federation.

Government of West Bengal holds 82.5% equity in the milk federation. However, state government doesn't have any equity in milk unions.

Primary Milk Society

The goal of the primary milk societies in West Bengal is to promote the economic interests of the members. It works towards improving the quality as well as increasing the quantity of the milk production. It follows the structure of ‘Anand Pattern’ of Gujarat.

Following chart will showcase the growth of primary milk societies in West Bengal.

Year	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Society Organized	2,570	2,647	2,837
Farmer Members	1,85,959	1,94,750	2,08,473

Activities of West Bengal Milk Cooperative Unions

The milk cooperatives in West Bengal play a major role in the development of this sector through their various activities. Following are the activities undertaken by the West Bengal Milk Cooperative Unions:

• Procure, process and market milk and milk products.
• Provide inputs to producer members.

List of West Bengal Milk Cooperative Unions

There are 14 milk cooperative unions in West Bengal, which procure an average of 3.91 llpd milk from 3,028 societies with 2,26,837 members. Most of the procured milk goes to the Government dairy plants, Metro Dairy and Mother Dairy.

Name	Location
Bardhaman Cooperative Milk Union	Burdwan
Bhagirathi Cooperative Milk Union	Murshidabad
Coochbehar Cooperative Milk Union	Coochbehar
Damodar Cooperative Milk Union	Hooghly
Himalaya Cooperative Milk Union	Darjeeling
Ichhamati Cooperative Milk Union	24 Parganas (North)
Jalpaiguri Cooperative Milk Union	Jalpaiguri
Kangsabati Cooperative Milk Union	Bankura
Kishan Cooperative Milk Union	Nadia
Kulick Cooperative Milk Union	North Dinajpur
Manbhum Cooperative Milk Union	Purulia
Mayurakshi Cooperative Milk Union	Birbhum
Midnapore Cooperative Milk Union	Midnapore
Sunderban Cooperative Milk Union	24 Parganas (South)

Cooperative Dairying: 2021-22 – Projections

	2004-05	2021-22	CAGR (%)
Milk Production (LKGPD)	103.7	157.8	2.5
Milk Procurement (LKGPD)	3.35	25.63	12.7
Milk Procurement (% of Marketable Surplus)	5	27
Village Coverage (No.)	1746	10767	11.3

Last Updated on 6^th July 2011