Interviews

Dr. R.S. Sodhi is President of the Indian Dairy Association and the former Managing Director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF). Based in Anand in the state of Gujarat, GCMMF is a farmers’ cooperative established in 1946 that markets dairy products through its flagship brand of Amul. Dr. Sodhi joined the organization in 1982 and worked alongside Dr. Verghese Kurien (known as the father of the dairy cooperative movement in India) for nearly three decades before becoming Managing Director from June 2010 to January 2023.

Dr. Sodhi begins the interview by outlining the early history of Amul. Before 1946, he explains that milk collection depended on Polson Dairy, a private company that functioned as an effective monopoly and compensated Indian farmers according to seasonal increases or decreases in production. In order to obtain better and more stable incomes, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel – a prominent figure in the struggle for Indian independence from Britain – advised that farmers should “own the whole supply chain.” This led to the establishment of Amul’s cooperative structure, made possible after farmers went on strike against the British colonial government.

Amul functions according to a three-tier structure, with village cooperative societies as the first layer, district cooperative unions as the second, and the state cooperative federation as the third. Dairy products follow the three-tier structure as they move from production and processing to marketing under the common brand name of Amul. Discussing the pros and cons of this structure as opposed to a private corporation, Dr. Sodhi relates that the “cooperative is a way of doing business for the small people, mainly suppliers of services or the products, so naturally business objectives change.” He views his role as the Managing Director of the cooperatives as “diagonally opposite” to that of a CEO for a corporation, who might seek to buy raw materials at the lowest price possible to maximize gross profit. Instead, he would aim to buy raw materials at higher prices to obtain more consistent returns for farmers.

Dr. Sodhi proceeds by describing the origin of the Amul name, as well as the creation of the “Amul girl” advertising campaign. At the time of Amul’s establishment, general consensus was that brands in India should carry English language names. He explains, however, how Dr. Kurien decided to go against the consensus, following the suggestion of a lab technician who coined Amul from the Sanskrit word for “priceless” – amulya. Despite having few funds to build the Amul brand, Dr. Sodhi describes how Dr. Kurien contacted Sylvester da Cunha, an advertising executive who in 1965 created the “Amul Utterly Butterly Delicious” campaign featuring the iconic “Amul girl.” Ongoing today, the “Amul girl” advertisements consist of a cartoon girl who comments on current affairs all the way from politics to pop culture.

Discussing the social impact of Amul, Dr. Sodhi relates how the organization’s cooperative structure has allowed landless and marginal farmers to improve their incomes and raise their economic status. He states that “it is like a hospital – the livelihood patient enters a hospital, you get well, you leave and other people enter.” In comparison to other dairy industries, he emphasizes how 80% of what a consumer pays for products returns to the farmer, allowing them to advance. Furthermore, he argues that village cooperative societies serve as “equalizers” when it comes to differences in gender, religion and social group.

Dr. Sodhi continues by addressing how Amul’s positioning with the government has changed over time. He discusses the Indian government’s formation of a Ministry of Cooperation in 2021, meant to oversee cooperatives in the country. Calling the creation of a new ministry a “revolution,” he views support of the cooperative structure as important in order to reduce rising disparities between the incomes of rural and urban families in India. As for sustainability in the dairy industry, he talks about opportunities for improving efficiency through digitization while also addressing what he sees as hypocritical stances on the industry’s carbon footprint. While acknowledging the impacts from cows’ methane production, he argues that one should view this as part of a larger, inter-connected system. Furthermore, he contends that more greenhouse gasses result from energy consumption related to, for example, the transport of produce from one side of the world to the other.

Dr. Sodhi concludes the interview by narrating the story of “Operation Flood,” a campaign that started in the 1970’s to increase milk production in India. Through successive stages from the 1970’s to the 1990’s, the campaign led to what was called the “White Revolution” as India went from a country with a deficit to one of the world’s largest milk producers. He expresses optimism about the sustained growth of the dairy industry in India, as well as the continued importance of the cooperative structure as a means to achieve the social betterment of rural communities throughout the country.

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