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NEXT 100 MILLION JOBS OF MILK
While BRAC's design of bangladesh poultry market to maximise livelihoods and great customer service of a vital non-vegetable foodstuff is simplest to explain (eg here) its leadership of the milk market through which it microfranchsies about quarter of a million jobs for the poorest could be one of the most interesting curriculum of all
THE MICROFINANCE AND NANOCREDIT BANK OF MILK
the question starts with how do you sustain the most livelihoods with milk - for small producers but ensuring you lead the nationwide market which has such a vital nutritional impact on the whole population
what becomes interesting is to make a checklist of all the types of milk product
fresh milk - most nutritious but least shelf-life - complete to distribute around villages with no roads except very short distance
condensed milk or pasteurised long-life milk - less nutritious, much more stable once manufactured but historically a big manufacturing investment and having similar collection problem from roadless villages -let alone getting the product back to the poorest villages economically
powdered milk - manufacturing chain has similar problems to long-life liquid milks; less weight of manufactured product may make it easier to distribute but dependency on mixing with clean water can make product very dangerous especially if targeted at mothers of infants who may not understand the usage instructions or know whether they have to access clean water (made worse in bangladesh's case that many wells that appear to offer clean water turn out to have too much arsenic)
other milk products like yogurt and cheese - well historically these would sound like upscale markets for the city -not likely to end nutritional problems in village (though there may be some fresh milk-mint coolers to make recipes around)
but take a second look at what can happen in the post digital age if the market leader is concerned to maximise jobs for the poorest as well as feed the nation
historically the most important thing BRAC's share of the milk chain does is the opposite to everyone else - it doesnt treat small producers badly the way other collectors do. What other collectors do is say we will pay you for the lowest quality milk (because we will mix it up as we collect) and at worst prices because you are only a small producer but collecting from you is (due to lack of roads) even more world
secondly new mobile tools can now help : BRAC collectors test quality of milk and so pay by quality there is no longer excuse for collectors to treat smallest prodcecrs in lowest common denominator ways
third 3-d printing technologies are revolutionising designs of micro-factories for eg yogurts and other processed foods
fourth while I dont know this to be the case I assume Alibaba's Jack Ma is smart enough to asp Alibaba to the area of small business to business swaps in milk related markets - also heard rumor that china mobile is active in that too
put this all together - and across the developing world there could be 100 million new jobs of milk if all the coops of small producers connect with the BRAC tyoe model and if all students growing up in our millennial world have access to a Yazmi-satellited Khan Academy of milk where all these different production and market choices are made transparent - lets empower customer and small producer communities of milk with the elearning on milk's curriculum vitae
anyway if there is someone you know who is a milk expert who can edit above please do relay on the challenge of the next 100 million jobs of milk if that's worth a try
happy labor day weekend, chris macrae wash dc 301 881 1655 skype chrismacraedc
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