Women Self-Help Groups and Dairy Farming

V.M. Rao (b. 1954) holds a doctorate in Dairy Economics and is currently working as Professor and HOD, Department of Research and Publications at Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Cooperative Management, Pune. He has earlier worked with National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad (1984-88), Ahmedabad (1988-92). On a British Council’s fellowship, Prof. Rao visited Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and United Kingdom. He has authored/co-authored six books: (a) Dairy Framing Socio-Economic analysis of Milk Production (1991), (b) Castor Economy: A Profile and analysis of India and International Market (1991), (c) International Castor Oil Market: An Econometric Analysis (1994), (d) Developing Agro Enterprises Among Farm Women: A Case of Amul (2000), (e) Empowering Farm Women through Dairy Cooperatives: A Study in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka (2003), and (f) Socio-Economic Status of Tribal women in Arunachal Pradesh (2003). Besides these books, he has published over 60 research papers in various professional journals/books. Dr. Rao also participated in a number of national and international seminars/conferences. His areas of interest are (a) animal husbandry economics, (b) agri-business management, and (c) gender related issues. He has completed 19 research studies sponsored by Government of India, ICSSR, and other state governments in the above areas during 1980-02. Currently, he is engaged in (a) integrating tribal women into cooperative: an experience of Girijan cooperative corporation, (b) impact of women dairy project in Orissa, and (c) impact of women dairy project (Phase 4) in Bihar.