Billing for your dairy and milk shop in Manipur
The morning can, the curd in the afternoon and the ghee for the feast: each family's month on one page.
Why the milk can is lighter when the fodder runs short
Fodder is short, and the producer's can is lighter
Bishnupur district's milk co-operative union told the Governor that milk producers face limited fodder supply and restricted market access. When fodder is short the producers who bring you milk bring less of it, and your regular houses still expect their litre. You do not know until the can is open how many of them you can serve. A houseful of regular customers does not hear about fodder. It hears that the milk came late, or that there was less of it, and it remembers.
The family away for the feast week
A house that takes a litre every morning goes to the mother's home for Ningol Chakouba and takes none for days. When the month ends, you remember some of those days and the family remembers others. Neither number is on paper, and the argument is over a few litres. A can that is not taken for those days is a can that is not sold, and the shop is the one to carry the gap. The festival is the one week of the year when the milk can goes unfilled in some houses and is doubled in others.
Packets left at the shutter by the cooperative van
The cooperative's van comes with packets at an hour when the shop is still shut, and a neighbour signs for them. Nobody writes down how many were left at the door, so at opening you count the crate and cannot tell whether the van brought less or a customer took some.
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Tools for a counter that sells milk, curd, lassi and ghee
Credit book (khata)
A family's page that shows only the mornings the can was filled, so the Ningol Chakouba week stays off the month's total.
Low stock warnings
The ghee jars and curd bowls that will not last until the feast evening, listed on the morning of the feast itself.
Orders to suppliers
The packets the van left at the shutter noted when you open, a neighbour's can noted by the litre.
From the family that skips the feast week to the lassi sold by the glass
The month's total sent to whoever keeps the family's accounts
In many houses the daughter-in-law keeps the accounts while the mother-in-law remembers the mornings. Send the month's milk bill to her phone with its days, and the two memories meet on one list that both can read. The month's page is also something the family can show a neighbour who doubts the figure, and the neighbour reads the same days.
Ghee jars and curd bowls of Ningol Chakouba week, sold as gifts
In Ningol Chakouba week the houses buy a jar of ghee and a bowl of curd to send home with the sister who is going back. Make the jar and the bowl items of their own, so a gift is two lines on the bill, and the week's count of jars and bowls is a number you can remember when the next feast comes.
What the producers brought, noted against the morning's sales
Write down on your phone how much each producer brought and when you paid him. In the weeks when fodder is short, look at the daily report beside those notes to see how many litres came and how many went, and which houses you had to turn away. The note of what each producer carried in is a small thing to write and a large thing to have when two of them disagree about a week.
Terraces and forest in Senapati, orchards in Bishnupur: the farm country behind a Manipur dairy
A dairy depends on grass, fodder and the market roads that bring the cans in.
- Senapati is mainly agricultural, with terrace farming of paddy, maize, cabbage and potato; 80% of the area is forest.
- Bishnupur is known for stoneware, and its district headquarters is popular for hill-grown oranges, yongchak (tree-bean) and vegetables.
- In Ukhrul, cultivators are 64.6% of main workers, agricultural labourers 4.4% and household-industry workers 2.5% (2011 Census).
- Thoubal is Manipur's largest sugarcane producer.
Questions Manipur milk sellers ask
In Ningol Chakouba week some houses take double and some none. How do I note that week's cans?
Each house's page takes the litres it really took, double or none, with the day. The week's cans add up from the pages, and a house that took nothing shows an empty week.
A house pays for the feast week's ghee jars in two goes. How do I note the first?
Bill the jars when they go out, put the first payment on the house's page, and what is left shows as owed until the second payment comes.
A regular house heard that the milk came late this week. How do I answer her?
Open her page. Every morning she was served is there with its litres, so you read the week together and see which morning was late. Tell her the day, and the week is clear.
Milk output and Manipur Dairy
Manipur produces around 82,000 tonnes of milk a year, but the Governor said output must rise to meet demand. For a small dairy that means every litre a producer brings is a litre worth recording.
The Manipur Milk Producers' Co-operative Union is now called Manipur Dairy, managed by NDDB, and sells milk, probiotic curd, lassi and cow ghee. A shop in Manipur that stocks these has milk, curd, lassi and ghee to count apart.