Early years In 1949, Kurien was sent by the government of India to its experimental
creamery at
Anand in
Bombay province (currently in
Gujarat). Earlier in 1946, Patel had set up a
cooperative at
Kaira. It was formed as a response to the exploitation of small dairy farmers by traders and agents, who set arbitrary milk prices on behalf of
Polson, which had a near-total monopoly in milk collection from Kaira. Kurien wanted to quit the government job and leave Anand but was persuaded by Patel to stay with him to help with his dairy cooperative.
Developing Amul (centre) and
H. M. Dalaya at
Anand Kurien developed the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited (KDCMPUL) further which later became
Amul. Milk collection was decentralised and was directly procured from the farmers at villages as a part of the cooperatives. Kurien and Tribhuvandas Patel were supported by
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and
Morarji Desai to help organise the dairy farmers. Kurien worked on the belief that economic self-interest of all sections of the village-society would make them align together to grow their cooperative and remove caste or class conflicts. The cooperative dairying venture was expanded to the nearby districts and was involved in the training of dairy students. By 1952, the daily milk procurement reached 20,000 litres from a mere 200 litres per day in 1948. On returning, he increased the production of condensed milk at Amul, the import of which was banned by Government of India two years later.
H. M. Dalaya, who studied dairy engineering with Kurien at the US, was persuaded by Kurien to work with him at Anand. He helped develop an indigenous process of making
skimmed milk powder and condensed milk from buffalo milk, which had a higher proportion of milk solids and increased its economic value. In India, buffalo milk was plentiful while cow milk was in short supply. With the production of condensed milk and baby food from Buffalo milk, Amul competed successfully against Nestle and
Glaxo. The then
Commerce minister T T Krishnamachari also cut imports of
butter in steps with Kurien promising and delivering an incremental increase of his production to substitute imported butter, especially from
New Zealand. During the
Sino-Indian War in 1962, production had to be diverted to the
Indian armed forces which allowed Polson to gain market share. Kurien lobbied with the government to freeze Polson's production lines, as part of the
war effort. Later research by G. H. Wilster led to cheese production from buffalo milk at Amul.
Nationwide expansion in 1964 When then Prime Minister
Lal Bahadur Shastri visited Anand to inaugurate Amul's cattle feed factory in October 1964, he interacted with the dairy farmers about their cooperative. In 1965, Shastri tasked Kurien to replicate the dairy's Anand scheme nationwide, for which the
National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was founded. Kurien negotiated with
FAO and
UNICEF of the
United Nations, and the
World Bank for aid to develop the cooperatives as a part of "Operation Flood". In the first phase between 1970 and 1979, he focused on choosing the 18 best milk sheds across the country, setting up dairy cooperatives and linking them with nearby major cities, to capture the market there. In the second phase between 1979 and 1985, the plan was extended to cover more than 290 towns. India became the world's largest milk producer by 1998, surpassing the United States and contributed to about 17 percent of global output in 2010–11. In 1998, he persuaded then Prime Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee to appoint
Amrita Patel as his successor at NDDB, whom he had groomed under him to protect NDDB's independence from the government. Later, he had differences with her on the policies of Amul. While she was focused on production and yield targets with certain functions such as marketing handed over to private, Kurien felt that the arrangement would weaken the cooperative institutions of the country. He resigned from the position of chairman of GCMMF in 2006 after limited support from the governing board.
Other work Kurien replicated the cooperative model in other agricultural industries like the production of fruits and vegetables, oil seeds and edible oil. In 1979, he started the Oilseeds Growers’ Cooperative Project (OGCP) under "Operation Golden Flow". In the 1980s, more than 500,000 farmers were part of the cooperatives and "Dhara", a brand of edible oil launched by NDDB in 1988, became the country's top selling brand. In the 1990s, the project began to lose steam as the government allowed the import of edible oil from other countries after the
economic liberalisation of India. In 1979, the
Premier of Soviet Union Alexei Kosygin visited Anand and invited Kurien to the
Soviet Union. In 1982, Kurien visited Pakistan as a part of a World Bank mission following the request of the
Government of Pakistan for aid in setting up dairy cooperatives. Kurien’s work registered interest from other countries like Sri Lanka and Philippines, who wanted him to replicate the cooperative model in their countries. China planned a similar programme based on Kurien’s initiatives. He also served as the chairman of
Tribhuvandas Foundation, a
non-governmental organization which worked on woman and child health in Kheda district in Gujarat. == Death ==