India, Dec. 6 -- Union home cooperation minister Amit Shah on Saturday said the Centre will use the cooperative model pioneered in Banaskantha to build a national circular dairy economy that will raise farmers' incomes by at least 20% in the next five years. He was speaking in Vav-Tharad in Gujarat after inaugurating Banas Dairy's new Bio-CNG and fertiliser plant and laying the foundation stone for a 150-tonne milk powder facility.

Shah said the tradition started by Galbabhai Nanjibhai Patel, who founded Banas Dairy in Banaskantha, had grown into a Rs.24,000-crore enterprise built by women and farmers of the district. He said Asia's largest milk-producing dairy had shown how an institution created in 1960 by eight village societies acros...