Proposed ICT Based ERP Model For Milk Cooperatives

Abstract

We have conducted academic research on ERP modules use in milk cooperatives. Our study was oriented around milk cooperatives and cattle farmers. Objective of study was to understand how ICT base ERP system can improve coordination between milk cooperative and cattle farmers. Based on study we have proposed ICT base ERP modules. We have conducted our research in four different district of Gujarat. We have collected primary data from cattle farmer as well as milk cooperatives. In this research paper we will discuss research details and also discuss proposed ERP modules.

Full text

Co-operative Perspective
(April - June 2021)
Vol. 56 Issue No. 1
ISSN 0302-7767
Editor-in-Chief
Dr. Hema Yadav
Advisory Board
President, National Cooperative Union of India, (NCUI)
President, All India Federation of Cooperative Spinning Mills Ltd
Chairman, National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB)
Chairman, National Federation of Urban Cooperative Banks and Credit Societies Ltd. (NAFCUB)
Chairman, State Cooperative Bank Federation (SCBF)
Chairman, National Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED)
Dr. K.K. Tripathy, IES, OSD to Minister of Cooperation, Government of India, New Delhi and
Former Director, VAMNICOM, Pune
Prof. H. M. Desarda, Former State Planning Commission Member, Maharashtra
Dr. Anirudh Prasad, Former Professor &HoD, Xavier Institute of Social Service, Ranchi
Representatives of Indian Farmers Fertilizers Cooperative Ltd. (IFFCO)
Editorial Board
Dr. Harekrishna Misra, Professor, Institute of Rural Management Anand, Gujarat
Dr. K. Sudarsan, Associate Professor, Department of M.B.A., SITAMS, Chittoor
Dr. Leisa Armstrong, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia
Dr. Om Yadav, North Dakota State University, Fargo, USA
Dr. Luis Teran, Professor, Armed Forces University, Ecuadar.
Dr. Sudhir K. Jain, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
Dr. Alok Dixit, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow
Shri N.R. Bahnumurthy, Professor, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi
Editorial Team
Shri Anil Kumar Tiwary, Faculty Member, VAMNICOM
Dr. Anshu Singh, Faculty Member, VAMNICOM
Editorial Assistant
Mrs. Kamakshi M. Sonawane
All data, views, opinions, etc. being pu blished are the
sole respon sibility of the au thor s. Neither publishers
nor editors are in any way responsible for them.
Web: www.vamnicom.gov.in
Co-operative Perspective
Website : www.cooperativeperspective.in

April - June 2021 Co-operative Perspective
Contents
Editorial
Articles :
Linking Small Holder Farmer Collectives to Market :
A Case Study of Maha-FPC
K. K. Tripathy, S. K. Wadkar, D. V. Deshpande 01
Proposed ICT Based ERP Model For Milk Cooperatives
Ravi Jadawala, Satish Patel 21
Business Model : A Case Study of Mandavgan Pharata
Vividh Karyakari Seva Sahakari Society Maryadit
Manisha Paliwal, Pallavi Ingale, Anshu Singh, Saba Sayed 43
Polyvalent Financial Inclusion By State Cooperative Banks
Yadnya Pitale 57
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84
Perspective
Involvement of Youth and Women in Cooperatives
Anil Kumar Tiwary 94
Co-operative Hospitals For Universal Health Coverage
MP Sukumaran Nair, R. Jaya Lakshmi 102
Book Review
Managing Change A Critical Perspective 2nd Edition
Girish Mangleek 106

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21
Proposed ICT Based ERP Model
For Milk Cooperatives
Ravi Jadawala1
Satish Patel2
ABSTRACT
We have conducted academic research on ERP modules use in milk
cooperatives. Our study was oriented around milk cooperatives and
cattle farmers. Objective of study was to understand how ICT base
ERP system can improve coordination between coordination between
milk cooperative and cattle farmers and to propose ICT based ERP
model. We have conducted our research in four different district of
Gujarat. We have collected primary data from cattle farmer as well as
milk cooperatives. In this research paper we will discuss research details
and also discuss proposed ERP model.
Index Terms : ICT base ERP model for dairy industry, Disruptive
technology in dairy industry, Farmer relationship management, Cattle
management
Acronym : ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning, ICT : Information
and Communication Technology, RFID : Radio-frequency identification,
IOT: Internet on things, GIS: Geographical information system
Definitions :
ERP : “Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an enterprise-wide
software solution that integrates and automates business functions of an
organization. This real-time information integration across the organizations
functional areas increases operational efficiencies and helps managers to arrive
at better decisions making the organization more competitive. Today having an
ERP system is not a luxury, but a necessity. A robust ERP system along with a
fully trained workforce is a must for an organization s survival.”1
Disruptive ICT technology : “Disruptive innovation is a term in the
field of business administration which refers to an innovation that creates a new
market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value
network, displacing established market leading firms, products, and alliances.”2
1Ravi Jadawala, Research Schol ar in Rural Management, Faculty of Mana gement
and Technol ogy at Guja rat Vidhayp ith, Center for Studies in Rura l Management,
Randheja 382620, Gujarat
2Dr. Satish Patel, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Rural Management, Faculty of Management
and Technology at Gujarat Vidhyapith, Center for Studies in Rural Management, Randheja
382620, Gujarat
1(Leon, 2008) 2(Ab Rahman, 2017)

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Full forms
IOT : Internet of things
GPS : Global positioning system
GIS : Geographic information system
RFID : Radio frequency identification
I. INTRODUCTION
India is one of the top milk producing country. Indian dairy sector is
largely dominated by cooperatives. Cooperatives founded and formed by
farmers are the key stakeholder of these cooperatives. Multiple small
cooperatives have joined their hands to form milk marketing federations
and milk processing units. At present milk cooperatives are well connected
with its parent federations. There is an easy exchange of data, information,
governance etc. at federation and cooperative level. But the missing piece
in whole structure are farmers. Farmers are largely detached from their
cooperatives and milk unions. So, to improve transparency and to integrate
key stake holder milk cooperatives must adopt technology.
Milk cooperatives are passing through a challenging phase. Technology
penetration is very less in milk cooperatives. It is difficult for milk cooperatives
to manage their resources without any technology. It is tedious to manage
operational, financial and investments activities without any central system. To
manage all this aspect, it is important to implement a central system that can
manage all the resources and supply chain of dairy industry.3
Apart from these farmers are also facing challenge.They found difficulty in
managing their daily operations. Per capita milk production in India is much less
compared to world average. There is no pre-defined best practice and cattle
rearing. So, day by day cattle raring has become less profitable compared to
other agriculture activity.4
Privatization and foreign investments in cattle raring and dairy industry has
given rise to an artificial competition in the market. Private big cattle farms can
easily achieve economy of scale and can sell milk at lower prices. Private dairies
are not ready to give high prices to farmer and they also stop accepting milk
in surplus seasons. This leads to exploitation of cattle farmers.
So, considering above challenges and problems regular software is
not enough for milk cooperatives and cattle farmer. In our research we
understood cattle farmer and milk cooperative’s requirement based on those
finding we have proposed ICT based ERPmodel.
3 (Ravi Jadawala & Dr. Satish Patel, 2018)
4(Ravi Jadawala & Dr. Satish Patel, 2017)

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II. LITRATURE REVIEW
a. Challenges of Indian Dairy Farms
India has large number of human capital so in the past Indian industry
has cost advantage over other countries. But now over the period with the
maturity and education daily wages have gone up exponentially. According
to Dr. N.G. Hegde of BAIF Development & Research Foundation, Indian dairy
industry has loosened the leadership in low-cost production. As some countries
like Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, etc have reduced their milk production
cost by achieving economy of scale. Due to low prices of milk & its allied
products India become net importer of those products. This has directly affected
Indian cattle farmer in terms of lower sale price. According to Dr. N.G, Hegde
apart from this, Indian dairy industry are facing following main challenges.5
• High cost of milk production
• High cost in milk handling and marketing
• Poor quality milk due to unhygienic milk handling
b. Importance of ERP in dairy industry
Following are the use of ERP in dairy industry bifurcated by daily milk
cooperative activities.6
Reception of milk,
Testing milk sample
Dispatch of milk-to-milk union
•ERP system used in recording milk quantity
at the time of procurement along with the
milk procedure name
•Society can record detailed test sample
results central system
•Through ERP system society can end e
receipts, SMS and print the passbooks
•From ERP system milk cooperative society
can audit the historical procurement data
•ERP system can create, and user can print
detail procurement report
•ERP system can help in recording truck
loading and truck dispatch time and also
report this to milk union and dairies
•ERP system helps societies to get exact
time of milk delivery
•ERP system helps in tracking milk van
routes through GPS
Milk cooperative activity Use of ERP system
5 (Hegde, 2001)
6(Ravi Jadawala & Dr. Satish Patel, 2019)

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c. Importance of ICT in dairy industry
With the growth and degree of penetration of ICT product it becomes
viable to use some of the ICT technology in managing and operating the
value chain of animal husbandry. In (Syiem & Raj, 2015) study results
showed that majority of the farmers owned mobile phones as well as television
and radio. The most frequently used ICT was mobile phone. Mobile phones
were widely used by the farmers for social communication, contacting
middlemen for the marketing of produce and contacting experts on real time
basis for getting agricultural advisories. Farmers also reported that mobile phones
proved to be useful during health emergencies.7
A study conducted by Bowonder, Prasad, & Kotla, in 2016 argued
that investments in ICT made in rural India are not effective. But the case of
Amul proves that, where there is a will there is a way. Amul has become rural
India’s flag bearer in the IT revolution. Study paper also shows analyses and
use of ICT in the dairy industry by the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing
Federation Ltd. The system makes it easy for farmers to get cash payment as
soon as they delivered milk. Amul experience indicates that if properly
•ERP help is remitting payment through
payment gateway.
•Hassel free payment history maintenance
•Easy to insert accounts related data
•Easy to retrieve accounting data
•ERP can auto generate reports like P&L,
general ledger etc.
•Auditor can easying search historical
accounting data. This reduces fraud and
improved transparency
•Based on stored data ERP system can
generate milk producer wise dividend
report. and help in auto remitting.
•ERP system can track all king of input
service.
•EPR can manag inventory of vaccines,
Cattle feed, and semen
Payment
Accounts and book keeping
Distribution of Profit
Input Services
7(Syiem & Raj, 2015) 8(Bowonder, Prasad & Kotla, 2016)

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designed ICT products are implemented, then rural poor can benefit from ICT
platforms. Customization of ICT platforms for use in rural communities is emerging
as a major opportunity for change.8
III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Population
We have conducted our study in four different districts of Gujarat i.e.,
Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Sabarkandha and Mahesana district. Our population
is all the farmers, farm worker who rear cow and buffalo in these four districts.
Sampling
Based on judgmental and simple random sampling method we have
selected one talukas form district. In our study we conducted interview at
5 villages in each district. We have interviewed 160 farmers and 20 milk unions.
Together we have chosen 180 respondents.
To get data from milk cooperatives, we have selected one milk collection
centre from each village we have gone.
Tools of Data Collection
• Schedule interview (Questionnaire) • Observation
• Focus Group Discussion
Data Analysis & Interpretation Techniques
In our research we have gathered quantitative as well as qualitative data.
For data analysis we have used descriptive technique. We have converted all
our data into numerical format and used descriptive techniques like cross
tabulations, one-way ANOVAs, weighted average etc. For better understanding
we will also use visual aids like graphs, chart, figures, etc.
Sabarkantha Prantij 64 5 40
Gandhinagar Mansa 48 5 40
Ahmedabad Sanand 52 5 40
Mehsana Kadi 120 5 40
Total 284 20 160
Sample
District Talukas No. of Villages No. of Villages
To Be Selected
No. of
Cattle farms
To Be Selected
Types of Respondents 1. Cattle farm owner/ worker 160
2. Secretary / manager of Milk collection center 20
Total Respondents : 180

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IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION9
We have analyzed our primary data using different descriptive techniques
like weighted average,one-way anova, cross tabulation, charts, and graphs.
Hypothesis
• Milk cooperatives needs a centralized ERP system
• ERP system in cattle farm can help in improving animal health.
• An ERP system can improve work scheduling and management of cattle farm.
• ERP platform improves the coordination between cattle farmer and dairy.
A. Milk Cooperatives needs a Centralized ERP System
We have interviewed multiple milk cooperatives to know what information
they want from cattle famers to improve coordination between them. We asked
below questions and based on milk cooperative responses we have analyzed
and found importance level.
9(Ravi Jadawala & Dr. Satish Patel, 2019)
Farmer wise cattle breed detail 2.61 Important
Number of cattle in each husbandry 4.67 Very Important
Per cattle milk production 3.44 Important
Husbandry wise milk production report 3.67 Fairly Important
Cattle wise medical expense detail 3.44 Important
Cattle wise breeding detail 2.28 Slightly Important
Loan account detail 4.11 Fairly Important
Per cattle expense report 1.89 Slightly Important
Per cattle earning report 1.94 Slightly Important
Total Weighted Average 3.11 Important
Table 4.1. Importance Level of Information that required by
Milk Cooperative
Cattle farm details
Rating<1Not important, 1 to 2-
slightly important, 2 to 3- Moderately
important, 3 to 4-Important, >5
Highly important
Weighted
average
rating
Importance
of level

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Discussion :
From above table we can say that there are many details that milk
cooperative need at central level. In order to collect all this information milk
cooperative has to integrate cattle rarer in one centralized system.
Milk cooperative considered below cattle farmer related information as
essential details. Cooperative likes to maintain these data in centralized system.
Number of cattle in each husbandry
Husbandry wise milk production report
Each cattle farmer loan account detail
Per cattle milk production
Cattle wise medical expense detail
Findings :
Based on above analysis and discussion we can conclude that Milk
cooperatives should have centralized ERP system. This system should have
specialized modules like farmer relationship management. This module is use to
manage, monitor and integrate cattle farmer, cattle farms and milk cooperatives.
B. ERP system in cattle farm can help in improving animal health
We have collected data from different district of Gujarat. Based on below
three questions we have find agreement of cattle farmers on our assumption
that ERP system will help in improving animal health.
• It is difficult for farmer to keep the track of animal vaccination time
schedule.
• Is it use full if you have number of lactation days and number of dry days detail?
• At present it is very difficult to find new veterinary doctor
Table 4.2. Weighted average of cattle health-related responses
Ahmedabad 4.18 2.92 2.13
Gandhinagar 3.30 3.05 1.84
Sabarkantha 3.18 2.83 1.93
Mahesana 3.26 3.33 1.79
Mean 3.48 3.03 1.92
Weighted average of cattle health-related responses
It is difficult for
farmer to keep the
track of animal
vaccination time
schedule?
Is it use full if you
have number of
lactation days and
number of dry days
detail
At present it is
very difficult to
find new
veterinary doctor

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Discussion :
From above table we can say that farmers agree that it is difficult for
them to keep track of vaccination and related time schedule. Similarly, they
agree that it is important to have cattle dry day and wet day data for future
reference.
• Farmer like to know cattle wise number of dry days and lactation days
• Farmer doesn’t face difficulty in finding veterinary doctor, but it is good if
he has whole directory of nearby veterinary doctor.
• Farmer find difficulty in keeping the track of animal vaccination time
schedule.
Finding :
From above analysis we found that ERP system will help cattle farmer in
improving their animal health. Based of analysis and discussion we can say that
it is good to have “Animal health management” module in ERP
C. An ERP system can improve work s che duling and
management of cattle farm.
• Reception of milk is high time-consuming operational activity
according to milk cooperative point of view
• Milk cooperative believes that Testing of milk, Accounting and
Distribution of profit are moderate time-consuming work
• Milk cooperative believes that payment of milk is low time-consuming
process.
• We found that milk cooperatives find difficulty in maintaining milk
purchase detail, milk testing detail and payment history.
Table 4.3. ANOVA test to understand relation between
ERP system and work schedule improvement
IT product like
software and
mobile apps will
help in improving
Animal husbandry
management
Between 2.98 3 .99 .47 .705
Groups
Within 315.90 149 2.12
Groups
Total 318.88 152
Sum of
Squares df Mean
Square
FSig.

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P-value 0.705 is greater than alpha level selected (0.05). Therefore, we have
evidence to accept null hypothesis and say that all the four samples have
no significant difference in means and thus belong to same population.
Hence H0 accepted: An ERP system can improve work scheduling
and management of cattle farm.
Discussion :
Farmers are willing to use software, mobile app, etc. They believe that
ERP system can improve their work schedule and husbandry management.
Findings :
Based on above analysis and discussion we can say that cattle farmers
needa comprehensive ERP system that improves their daily cattle farm
management.
D. ERP platform improves the coordination between cattle
farmer and Dairy.
Table 4.4. ANOVA test to understand coordination between
cattle farmer and milk cooperative
There is lack of
coordination
between cattle
farm and milk
cooperatives
Do feel that IT
software will help
you in making
your cooperatives
more transparent
Between
Groups 9.79 3 3.26 2.45 .066
Within
Groups 198.32 149 1.33
Total 208.12 152
Between
Groups 5.85 3 1.95 1.32 .269
Within
Groups 219.46 149 1.47
Total 225.31 152
Sum of
Squares df Mean
Square
FSig.
F-value 2.45 is smaller than F-critical value for the alpha level selected
(0.05) and P value in both the cases (0.66 and 0.269) is greater than alpha
level (0.05). Therefore, we have evidence to accept null hypothesis and say
that all the four samples have no significant difference in means and thus belong
to same population.Hence H0 accepted: ERP platform that can improve the
coordination between cattle farmer and Dairy.

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Discussion :
From above analysis we can say that there is a lack of coordination
between farmers and milk cooperative. Moreover, farmers feel that IT products
can milk cooperative’s transparency.
Findings :
• From above analysis and discussion,we can say that farmer and milk
cooperative need a complete ERP solution that has both on farmer’s side
as well as cooperatives side modules like milk management, payment
tracking, weather alert, expense tracking, marketplace, important
contact. On cooperative’s side modules like Milk collection management
inventory management, milk transit management, sales, human
resource management, farmer relationship management, cattle
management, accounting. Based on above hypothesis findings we have
designed an ERP model.
V. PROPOSED ICT BASED ERP MODEL FOR MILK
COOPERATIVES (IN THE ASPECTS OF CATTLE FARM).
In the vibrant market of information technology there are many solutions
available that provide software to support milk cooperative operation and
its regular activity. We are trying to propose a model that can holistically
cover all aspects of milk cooperative especially to increase overall milk production,
improves synergy between cooperatives and cattle farmer and increase famer
income. We have studied multiple aspects of dairy industry through secondary
data. We have taken around 160 personal interviews of cattle farmers and 20
responses from milk cooperatives.
Through primary data analysis we have found the problem areas in cattle
farm. We understood the challenges of milk cooperative and cattle farmer and
identified the gaps between them. Based on all this aspect we have extracted an
ICT based ERP model that can overcome those challenges and fill the gaps
between them. We have limited our study in exploring ERP system model for
milk cooperative in aspects of cattle farm. We have proposed model accordingly.
We have created ERP model considering two perspectives, one is from
milk cooperative perspective, and another is cattle farm perspective. Based on
our study below are essential modules require in ICT base ERP model.
10 (Ravi Jadawala & Dr. Satish Patel, 2019)

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ICT Based ERP Model10
Milk cooperative is an organization which is engaged with multiple
stakeholders. Milk cooperatives have to deal with milk federation, Milk
collection centers, Farmers, government bodies etc. Milk cooperative
stake holders are spread across vast geographical area. A milk cooperative
must deal with diverse set of people. In order to manage whole organization,
improve milk quality and increase milk production milk cooperative have to
adopt technology integrated ERP.
We propose a model in which all the stake holder has its own access to
ERP with related functionalities and modules. ERP should be able to integrate
itself with tracking and monitoring devices like GPS, thermometer, odometer,
IOT, GIS etc.
Following are key features of ICT base ERP.
• ERP should be run at central server.
• User access of ERP should be on web base and should be interactive to
support any screen. In short it should be Desktop, tablet and mobile
compatible.
• System must have centralized database.
• Database should be properly backed up in case of disaster management.
• Centralized database must have proper data warehousing.
• ERP should be able to integrate itself with tracking and monitoring
devices like GPS, thermometer, odometer, IOT, GIS etc.
• Collection centers and cattle farmer user interface must be in form of
mobile application.

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Figure 1. ICT based ERP system (Modules at various levels)

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Figure 2. ERP Modules

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Milk Cooperatives Modules
• Milk Collection Management
Milk collection is a daily process that is done by each milk cooperative
collection centers. Usually in morning and evening all milk producers come to
milk collection center and fill their milk into milk collecting vessels. At present
many milk collection centers has automated milk collecting machine. These
machines are connected to computers, and it gives acknowledgment receipt.
We are proposing to integrate fat analyzer and automated milk collection
machine to central main frame system of milk cooperative. Famer fills milk in
collection vessel a milk analyzer will analyze milk content and milk. Based on
fat, SNF, quantity printer will print out receipt with quantity, fat, and amount of
rupees. It stores collected data in central database which can easily retrieved
farmer, milk collection center, milk cooperatives and federations. This data can
use in reporting as well as to initiate payments to respective farmers.
This kind of integrated system can reduce the human intervention and
milk collection process can be designed in such a way that it can become human
less process.
• Inventory management
This module will help cooperatives and milk collection center to monitor
the inventory and tack stock in and stock out entries. Inventory module will
help milk collection center and cooperatives to reduce turn around time and
helps in improving milk shelf life.
Inventory management should track milk stock in and stock out entries.
Milk cooperative can centrally view all stock in and out entries of all milk collection
center. It can also help in matching milk collection stock out entries and
milk processing plant stock in entries. This will help to reduce theft in transit.
Inventory management module should centrally integrate all chiller at
all collection centers. This type of integration will help in managing
temperature control and monitoring centrally from one place. For example,
if any of the chiller machine get down or there is a power failure or any kind of
catastrophic even central monitoring team can help collection center to mobilize
milk from one center to another by reviewing available space in other collection
centers. This kind of setup can greatly reduce milk contamination and improve
milk shelf life.
IOT integrated chillers can be operated centrally as this will help in
reducing power consumption. For example, on certain days there less amount
of milk in chiller and it is not required to run at high speed this can be managed
from central office.

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• Milk transit management
Logistic is an essential part of any industry. In dairy industry logistics
plays crucial role. A dairy needs two-way logistics one on milk collection side
and another is on milk distribution side.
Milk transit management is a module that helps milk unions to monitor
and track milk purchase logistics. Milk union can start a central monitoring
center for tracking and analysis purpose. This system should be efficient enough
to record drivers that assign to which truck, it should record run date and route
that driver has used, it should note dispatch time and reception time of truck.
Based on collected data system should do comparative analysis of schedule run
and actual run to find any flaws in transit. It should be efficient enough to create
shortest optimum route so that with minimum trucks milk union can cover
maximum milk collection center and do optimum truck load pooling.
All truck should be attached to GPS tracking and GPS fencing. It means
from central monitoring center a person can review the truck location as well
as system can create alert if truck has changed his route. This system improves
the milk collection efficiency, it can help in better fleet management, reduce
cost of transit and in catastrophic event like floods or infra failure, truck can be
re-routed to avoid disasters.
Milk union can implement artificial intelligence to monitor truck transit
time, distance covered, fuel cost, maintenance cost, etc. Based on these data
system can take decision to replace truck, replace driver, change route, and
open new collection center and close unprofitable collection centers etc.
Figure 3. Inventory Management Module

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• Sales
Milk cooperative usually operates two different sales channels. Cooperative
must sell collected milk to its federations. In few cases cooperative also sell
small quantity of milk at village level.
ERP should have a sales module which should keep sales done by milk
cooperative to federation as well as the daily local sales entries. Keeping books
of cooperative to federation sales entries will help in managing receivables and
Local sales book will helps in tracking daily cash inflow.
• Human resource management
In any industry one of the most important resource are human resource. In
milk cooperative we are considering internal working staff as milk cooperative
human resource.
Like other organizations milk cooperative also face multiple challenges in
managing and maintaining human resource. ERP should have powerful
standardized recruitment management, Payroll system, Bond deduction and lien
management programs. Module must be up to the mark of industry standard.
• Farmer relationship management
Farmer is the real owner of milk cooperatives. Without cattle farmers it is
not possible to run milk cooperative. An ERP should have module specifically
dedicated to cattle farmers. This module should manage all aspects of cattle
farmers to improve synergy between milk cooperative and cattle farms.
Farmer relationship management module should store all the details of
existing member like demographic details of farmer, enrollment or membership
number, address, scan copy of submitted documents, cattle details, Milk filled
history, financial detail, contact detail etc.
Module should help milk cooperative in acquiring new member, retaining
existing member and reviving old members. Based on daily activity of cattle
farmer ERP should be capable to generate reports that identify how much
farmer is interacting with milk cooperative. ERP will fetch daily milk filling details
and based on that it should identify filling patterns of cattle farmer. This detail
will help milk cooperatives in forecasting milk inflow and out flow and to
understand farmer’s perception towards milk cooperative.
Now a days world is moving towards cashless economy. Farmer
relationship management module should also move in same direction. It should
integrate payment gateways, digital wallets, payment banks, net banking etc.
So, all payments can be reconciled and verify at central office and then it can be
remitted to respective cattle farmer’s account. Along with this yearly dividend

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payment must be done electronically. This functionality can reduce cost of cash
management, theft and reduce dissatisfaction of farmer.
In order to retain cattle farmers and improve milk cooperatives transparency,
cooperative has to adopt complain redressed mechanism. Usually due to
bureaucracy and red tape true voices are suppressed and remain unheard.
To overcome this milk cooperative should adopt proper complain tracking
system. System should note complains and notify respective department’s concern
person. Module should also keep track of complaint disposal time.
If milk cooperative has dematerialized its share certificate, then module
should have access to those information and gives complete detail of folio
number linked to the farmers share certificates.
Figure 4. Farmer Relationship Management
• Cattle management
Cattle are the main actor of milk cooperatives and most ignored entity of
whole dairy industry. If dairy industry wants to increase quality and quantity of
milk production, then they have to concentrate on improving cattle health and
have to improve cattle happiness index.
Cattle management module in ERP will record each cattle detail in system.
It must be capable enough to record number of cattle by farmer, by village and
by milk collection center. It should have breed details, per animal milk fat,
per animal milk production etc. All this will be used in data analytics to identify
the patters which further helps in complex decision making like breed selection,
buying, or selling of cattle, increasing or decreasing cattle ration etc.
ERP should be capable enough to integrate devices like cattle body
temperature measurement device, heart beats recorder, etc. that can collect
real-time data from cattle’s body. These data further can be used to identify
health problems in early stages; data can be used by veterinaries to investigate
diseases. With the use of real time milk cooperative can reduce animal
mortality rates. These data also help in selective breeding to improve overall
cattle blood line.

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Co-operative Perspective April - June 2021
Integrating ERP with GPS will help milk cooperative in locating animal
on map and RFID will give cattle a unique identity. These technologies will help
insurance companies as well as cattle farmers in claim settlements.
From the daily milk filling data and based on per cattle milk
production, per cattle fat production. An artificial intelligence base technology
can be developed to do cattle profiling, to suggest replacement of certain
cattle, increase or decrease the number of cattle at each cattle farm to
achieve economy of scale these kinds of analytically calculated suggestion
will help milk cooperative to achieve its optimum performance, system will
improve animal health and save farmers money.
• Accounting
A robust accounting and book system is a key to transparent corporate
governance. To increase transparency of milk cooperative it should adopt
standardized account standard and ERP should those accounting standard. For
example, ERP should support accounting standards like GAAP and IND-AS.
Based on operational data entries ERP should create General ledger,
Aging reports, payables reports, receivables reports, cash flow statement etc.
and module should help in milk cooperative audit.
Cattle Farmer Modules :
We propose that for cattle farmer it is good to have web as well as
mobile application. All functionalities must be available on both the platform.
On farmer side technology should show data in regional languages as well as in
audio format.
• Milk management
In milk management screen farmer should be able to see his daily milk
filling activity. He must get full detail of quantity he has filled, milk fat, money he
earned. He should be able to access the historical data by shift, by day, by
month and year. Farmer should be able to see all these data in numerical as well
as graphical format and in regional languages. Farmer should get reports like his
average daily milk filled, average fat, average money he earned etc.
• Payment tracking
In payment tracking system farmer will be able to see payment remittance.
This section allow farmer to view his historical payment and he must be able
to print or email milk filled recipes.
This section must be link with ERP complaint tracking section.
If farmer found some issue in payment, he must be able to report that issue
immediately by one click.

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VAMNICOM, Pune
39
If milk cooperative integrates ERP system to respective farmer’s bank,
then farmer can see the bank balance directly from the app. This reduces
farmer’s efforts and increases transparency.
• Expense tracking
In India small farmers are not tracking any expenses that is incured on
cattle. They never maintain any records of cash out flow. Gradually this leads
to cattle farm working capital diversification and bankruptcy. To avoid this
milk cooperative should conduct expense management training and mobile
app should provide a function from which farmer can voluntarily insert cattle
farms daily expense.
Farmer should be able to insert all the expenses he incur on cattle like
fodder expense, food pallets expense, health care, vaccination, insurance, monthly
electricity and water bills, government taxes, fuel charge etc.
• Market Place
Milk cooperative should provide exclusive section in app that
provides farmer facility to purchase food pallet, farm equipment’s, and animal
medicines, vet doctor service etc online.
Section can also integrate third party agriculture related verified e-commerce
from where farmer can purchase cattle farm equipment’s.
Along with this app should also allow farmer to list the profiles of animal
he wants to sell or buy. Milk cooperative should support a platform though
mobile app from where farmer can buy or sell his animal to other farmers. An
e-commerce facility of buying and selling cattle can reduce illegal activity, help in
identifying actual price of cattle. It can become boon to farmers.
• Cattle Management
For Indian farmers, their cattle are the helping hands. Farmer likes to
keep their cattle herd in good condition. In India religious beliefs are also
associated with their cattle.
ERP should provide set of functions and integration to external devices to
record real time cattle activities. ERP should help farmer in cattle related decision
making, analyzing cattle herd, tracking cattle health etc.
Cattle management module must have ability to integrate GPS, RFID tags
and collared GPS devices. This helps farmer to view grazing cattle location from
his mobile device and in case of theft farmer can searching cattle easily.
To track and improve cattle health module has ability to connect devices
like thermometer, heart rate measurer, sensors etc. that can collect animal real
time data. These data will help Vet doctor in diagnosing diseases from ill animal.
These real time data will help in preventing any epidemic among animals.

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Co-operative Perspective April - June 2021
ERP should have a scheduler. Farmer will enter all the daily, monthly,
and yearly plans for cattle. Based on the schedule ERP will give alerts to farmer.
Scheduler Examples
Farmer will schedule early vaccination schedule. ERP will give reminder
alerts to farmer on his mobile.
Farmer will feed in his daily schedule like fodder refill time, water refill
time, milking time, etc. ERP on mobile can give notification time to time to
maintain the schedule. ERP must be capable enough to give alerts/notification to
other farm workers on his mobile
ERP should give farmer a functionality to post milking data of each animal
on daily bases. Milk cooperative should encourage farmer to do postings and
voluntarily share data to other farmers and milk cooperatives.
For each animal if farmer collects data like animal breed, daily milk
production, milk fat, dry days, wet day, health expense, food intake, water
intake, milking cycles etc., then farmer and milk cooperative can create an
efficient data warehouse. These data can further be converted to information.
ERP should give artificially intelligent analytical reports to farmer. These
reports should help farmer in buying new animal, selling old animal, replacing
whole herd, breeding, increasing milk cycles, improving milk quality etc. These
kinds of huge data warehouse can open number of possibilities in improving
efficiency and effectiveness of cattle farms.
• Weather Alerts
With increase in global warming and rise in temperature earth has experience
major climatic changes which leads to increase or decrease in rain fall, increase
in monsoon floods etc.
In flood like situation cattle suffers most. Humans find their way to save
themselves but tied up cattle drowns in floods. App should have weather alert
integration. This can give early alert to farmer prepare him for any kind of
catastrophic event.
Even weather forecasting can also help farmer in planning his procurement
activity. In drought situation farmer can store more fodder and water to reduce
weather impact.
• Important Contacts
ERP should have preloaded important contact information in App. It
should have contact list of nearby veterinary doctors along with geo tagging on
online map which help farmer finding good doctor for its cattle.

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VAMNICOM, Pune
41
It should also have important contact details like nearby banks,
farm equipment seller, government offices etc. which makes farmers life
easy. We also recommend that app should have contact details of all milk
cooperative staff.
App should have IT support and complaint registration contact details.
VI. CONCLUSION
Through our study we found that regular software base ERP is not enough
to include milk cooperative’s farmer in mainstream. We found that we need an
ICT (Information communication technology) based ERP system to integrate
geographically versatile stakeholders of milk cooperative.
Using different technologies like GPS, RFID, IOT, remote sensing, mobiles
ERP can gather and store data in central database. Using central data at different
level user can generate different user specific reports. These reports help milk
cooperatives in decision making process. These reports help cooperative to
improve overall cattle herds’ health, breed, productivity etc. Through our study
we found that overall productivity of milk cooperative and cattle farmer can be
monitor and improve though the reports that generated from ICT based ERP.
Through our study we have identified different modules for cattle farmers
and milk cooperative. These modules will help cattle farmers as well as milk
cooperative in finding their optimum operational method, helps both cattle farmers
and milk cooperatives to identify their best practice and helps in re-engineering
their daily business processs.
Thus, we can conclude that ICT based ERP can significantly improve
cattle farmer efficiency, effectiveness and integrate them in mainstream.
Similarly,ICT based ERP will improve overall milk production, transparency,
and efficiency of milk cooperative. ICT based ERP can become stepping stone
for the revival for whole milk cooperative sector.
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