The union government has unveiled an ambitious push to expand and strengthen dairy cooperatives in Odisha under its White Revolution 2.0 initiative, aiming to bring thousands of small milk producers—especially women and marginal farmers—into the organised sector.
The effort is being driven through a mix of new cooperatives, revival of existing societies and targeted financial support. These were major initiatives announced by Union Minister for Home and Cooperation Amit Shah in the Rajya Sabha this week.
Big expansion of dairy cooperatives in Odisha
Under White Revolution 2.0, Odisha has been given a target to set up 8,547 new dairy cooperative societies and strengthen 1,140 existing ones between 2024–25 and 2028–29, funded under the National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD) of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying.
As of January 13, 2026, 494 new dairy cooperatives have already been formed in the state, while 466 existing societies had been strengthened by September 30, 2025, according to Shah.
These cooperatives are backed with support for village-level milk collection, chilling facilities, and training and capacity-building programmes to improve quality and productivity.
Odisha’s cooperative network is already extensive: 11 district-level milk unions together run thousands of functional dairy cooperative societies, with Cuttack Milk Union alone covering 1,481 societies and nearly 75,000 producer members.
Ensuring fair prices and direct payments
To cushion dairy cooperatives from liquidity stress—especially after COVID-19—the Centre introduced an interest subvention scheme on working capital loans under the SDC&FPO programme, implemented via NDDB. Under this, Odisha’s OMFED received Rs 29 lakh as interest subvention in 2023–24 to help it pay farmers on time, according to the Centre.
On Wednesday, Shah stated that about 80 per cent of milk producers linked to Odisha cooperatives receive payments directly into their bank accounts through OMFED and affiliated unions.
In December 2025 alone, OMFED paid Rs 57.07 crore in milk bills to producer members of its dairy cooperative societies, supporting a more transparent and stable income stream.
While milk prices are set by cooperatives and private dairies based on costs and market conditions, cooperatives are expected to revise procurement prices to keep them remunerative for farmers.
White Revolution 2.0 at the national level
The White Revolution 2.0 is reshaping the dairy cooperative landscape. Just before its inauguration (as of December 24, 2024), India had 9,429 Multipurpose Dairy Cooperative Societies (M-DCS) registered since February 2023. By the end of 2025, that number had surged to 22,332 registered M-DCS, of which 20,104 were functional—a rapid expansion in the cooperative model.
The Ministry of Cooperation noted that no formal study has yet quantified the income jump for marginal farmers after joining these cooperatives, but stated the initiative is designed to reduce exploitation, tackle adulteration and boost value addition, thereby creating more stable and sustainable earnings for dairy households.