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To bring clarity, iFarmer used live weighing machines on the field to document the weight of the cows and goats so that farmers and buyers were aware of the price according to the cattle.
Before Eid-ul-Azha, the Covid-19 epidemic and floods in the northern part of the country adversely affected the supply of sacrificial animals. An agro-technology launch has enabled about 200 farmers to sell cattle in the online market.
Defined as a digital agriculture platform in Bangladesh, iFarmer focuses on connecting farm financers with real farmers in order to increase safe food production while promoting mass participation in agriculture-livestock funding.
iFarmer Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Jamil M Akbar told, “Eid-ul-Azha, a major Muslim religious festival that marks the end of the Hajj, is an annual blessing for thousands of permanent and seasonal cattle traders in Bangladesh,”
The sale of cattle booms in the days leading up to Eid-ul-Azha, where thousands of permanent and temporary cattle markets are set up in villages, towns and cities countrywide, said Jamil.
This year, however, the dynamics of the selling of cattle during the festival changed as the government only allowed limited number of temporary cattle market amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“As a result, farmers or sellers might not be able to attract customers as people are afraid of getting infected with the virus, which has left farmers in trouble as they made investments in rearing cattle targeting the Eid,” said Jamil.
To solve this problem, the platform has taken shelter of online marketplace as after the pandemic, an increasing number of consumers have turned to e-commerce to buy daily necessities and cattle also.
“This is where iFarmer comes in. Since its inception, we have built a strong network of more than 5,000 farmers. This Eid, it has partnered up with online commerce such as Khaas Food Ltd, HungryNaki and Priyoshop.com, to directly source and supply cows and goats from iFarmer's network of farmers,” he added.
How iFarmer works
iFarmer works with verified and trained partner farmers, offering them input on credit/partial credit, advisory services and then connects the farm produce to Business to Business (B2B) clients.
At the end of the farming cycle, the profit is shared among the farmers and farm investors, where the farm investors are individuals from the urban middle class segment of the economy who are funding the capital required for farming.
iFarmer has been focusing on financing livestock farmers, providing them with input and advisory services and helping them sell their produce directly to large scale retail buyers.
As a result, farmers are getting higher profits due to better quality of the livestock and being able to sell directly to institutional buyers. Find more...
Source: Online/SZK
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