A new green revolution has begun in Gujarat. Two years ago, the 13 milk unions of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (better known as Amul) decided to launch a mass tree plantation programme involving each and every milk producer member. In the first year of the project Amul milk producers planted 180,000 trees across 14,000 villages in Gujarat, in 2007 on "One member, One tree" basis.
The programme was then up scaled in the year 2008. All the Member Unions of GCMMF unanimously decided to plant at least three trees per member. In this phase, saplings were provided in each district where dairy cooperatives are located, village by village and farmer by farmer, and an oath was taken to ensure that the sapling grew into tree and tree planting was carried out in 14,000 villages all across Gujarat on 13th, 14th and 15th of August, 2008. Approximately 5,300,000 tree saplings were planted.
In the third year of this mass movement, the programme was further scaled up and in order to enhance the tree cover faster, the Board of Directors of GCMMF decided to contribute Rs. 2 Crores for the tree planting drive. With active participation of Milk Unions, 127 nurseries have been set up all over Gujarat, equipped with the necessary tools and equipment.
This year, farmers can choose the saplings they wish to plant. The farmers were encouraged to select the place and prepare the land for the planting in advance. The drive to carry out mass tree planting was undertaken for a month, culminating on Independence Day, a press release states.
During this period, each milk producer member was encouraged to plant three to five trees. Milk producers have massively planted trees across 14,000 villages in Gujarat. The target is one crore trees. Moreover, despite scanty rains, the milk producers have been able to plant more than 7.2 million saplings.
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