NADAUN, HAMIRPUR – 03 December 2025:In a significant step towards strengthening the rural cooperative movement, a strategic awareness camp was organised by NABARD on 03 December 2025 at Nadaun to mark the International Year of Cooperatives 2025. The event brought together key stakeholders from the administration, banking, and agricultural sectors to discuss the developmental and financial needs of Dairy Cooperative Societies and their integration into the formal cooperative banking framework. The primary agenda of the camp revolved around the theme "Cooperation among Cooperatives," emphasising how different cooperative bodies can collaborate to create a self-sustaining rural ecosystem.

Deputy Director, Animal Husbandry Shri Satish Kapoor, urged the Dairy Cooperative Societies to look beyond traditional operations of milk collection only. To ensure long-term sustainability and viability, societies were encouraged to adopt business diversification plans such as value addition to milk products, expanding into livestock feed supply, one-stop solution centres for dairy farmers, customer service centres etc.

Ms Sunita, Milk Procurement Assistant, from Milkfed Jalari Plant, talked about the available MSP from the State Government in the milk sector and how Milkfed is procuring milk from various societies and farmers through milk collection vans on various important milk routes.

DDM NABARD Hamirpur Shri Naresh Kumar stressed the urgent need to bring dairy societies into the formal cooperative banking fold. Societies and members were strongly urged to open active accounts with Cooperative Banks to ensure transparency and better financial management through digital transactions. A major initiative discussed was the transformation of Dairy Cooperative Societies into "Bank Mitras" (Banking Correspondents). This move will allow societies to provide basic banking services like micro-ATMs and RuPay KCC to dairy farmers at their doorsteps, bridging the financial gap in rural areas. Availability of Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) and other schemes for dairy farmers was also discussed, which provides low-interest working capital to farmers for cattle maintenance, thereby boosting milk production.

With the strategic importance of the Daghwar Milk Plant in the neighbouring district of Kangra, speakers highlighted the immense potential of the resulting milkshed area. Dairy societies were urged to capitalise on this infrastructure to increase milk procurement and ensure better remuneration for farmers. The goal was to ensure that dairy societies in Hamirpur do not just remain collection centers, but evolve into robust financial and business hubs. By linking them with Cooperative Banks and the Daghwar project, the economic future of our dairy farmers is being ensured and secured.