Mr. Ravi Khanna, Ivar Consulting, USA, Ms. Taramara Nicodeme, Marketing Specialist and Ms. Ambra Galina, Gender Analysis Consultant, International Fund for Agricultural Development visited Anand on June 9, 2008 to learn from the Amul model. They are studying the best practices in the use of value chains to help the rural poor.

During their stay, they visited Amul Dairy, IRMA, Vidya Dairy and a Village Dairy Co-operative Society. They also met Shri B. M. Vyas, Managing Director, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation and discussed with him the role of Amul in helping the rural poor.

They felt “Amul appears to be a stellar example of how the rural poor appear to have used horizontal integration to participate in the downstream (market access) activities in the vertical value chain.”