The sellers themselves are engaged online, avoiding digital market

Eid ul Adha is the Eid of Sacrifice; sacrificing animals to please the Creator, the Almighty. So, sacrificial animal markets, locally known as Haats are crowded all over the country. In the temporary Haats built on the side of the road or in the field, the trading of animals is going on in full swing. But it is not possible for everyone to go to the market, go around and choose cows, bargain and buy cows at the right price. During the pandemic caused by Covid-19, most of the sacrificial animal market went online. A ' Digital Pashuhat ' was developed. The first initiative was taken by E-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB). After that a a2i of ICT Division and then Dhaka North City joined there to create a big contribution in this market.

In addition to Dhaka, 64 districts saw a huge response to digital animal markets in 2022. Bangladesh Dairy Farmers Association (BDFA) joined e-CAB in this market with the cooperation of Government ekShop Project, a2i, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Ministry of Commerce, ICT Department and UNDP. After that, sitting with a mobile phone or PC, the city dwellers became familiar with the digital trading of sacrificial animals without the hassle and even the hassle of distributing the animal sacrifice on the day of Eid.

But due to the decrease in the incidence of Corona and the inability to verify the quality of cows online and to avoid fraud, the interest of buyers in online animal markets decreased during Qurbani Eid last year. But MFS or card transactions increased.

In such a situation, the digital animal market has slowed down more this year. It has been seen that a total of 468 markets of the Ministry of Fish and Animal Resources are connected to the Digital Livestock market in 8 divisions of the country. In addition to Facebook based and online haats, there are links to private level dairy farms, sale points and slaughtering sites in this national online haat. However, the sale in this market is not so much. According to sources, not even 100 cows appeared in this market. However, at the time of writing this report, about a quarter of the animals were sold. But even though there were options for goat, buffalo, dumba, camel on the site, they were empty.

Therefore, the process of buying and selling animals online and digital sacrifice does not stop. Centrally, the merchants of the last time in the digital animal market are now selling online themselves even if they do not bring the animals in this market. Farmers are also buying and selling animals through social media like Facebook, WhatsApp and websites. Day by day, it is also gaining popularity. Now the online market place is bikroy.com . Farmers are conducting various activities to sell cows and goats through social media including Facebook, YouTube. Farmers who have a couple of cows are also taking pictures of their cows and sharing them on their Facebook wall in various community-based groups. Not just pictures anymore; Companies like Bengalmeat , North Bengal Dairy Farm and Adorsho ​​Praniseba are becoming popular by fixing the price according to the weight of the sacrificial animal.

Fida Haque, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Adorsho ​​Praniseba Limited said that even though there is no online market this year, some buyers are ordering online to buy animals, ignoring the crowd, dirt and smell of the animal markets. In particular, the participation of buyers in Dhaka is in the field of buying animals online. Because, buying animals from trusted online buyers can avoid the risk of being cheated.

Basically, to get rid of the trouble of keeping cows at home and sacrificing on Eid day, many people are now choosing to see cows online or by going to the farm. Sacrifice at the farm and bring the meat home. And day by day, the tendency to sacrifice at home is being added to the civil life.

When asked about the lack of digital haats this year, Imran Hossain, president of Bangladesh Dairy Farmers Association (BDFA), said that digital haats were formed with the relevant government ministries, city corporations and farmers during the pandemic. It got a good response that year, but later it fizzled out due to lack of patronage from Digital Haat. If this haat can be managed properly, digital haat would have become another name of people's trust in hassle-free purchase of sacrificial animals.

Mohammad Abdul Waheed Tamal, the founder general secretary of e-CAB, the lifeblood of this initiative in Bangladesh, said, "We have encouraged farmers across the country to sell animals online, where more than 10,000 farmers, i.e., animal sellers, now sell animals from their own Facebook pages online. This is the biggest success of Digital Haat.

The current e-CAB General Manager Nasima Akhter Nisha said, for the declining interest of the sellers and buyers of the animal haat, the lack of incentive and awareness to establish trust between the two, they were not able to collect the necessary funds for the promotion of the digital haat this year. But digital management has many costs. But they did not have enough funds to market this market. There was no such big sponsor. That’s why, there was not much focus on the digital animal that.

A group of young people from Pabna supplies cows across the country through the 'Gaur Hat' website. In addition to the website, we also show cows on YouTube. Sharif Sarkar, an entrepreneur of this market, said that more customers come from there.
He said that their customers are mainly from Dhaka. Despite getting a good response to the online sale, this time they picked fewer cows due to complications with vehicles to reach the buyers. All are already sold out.

In addition to the website, the sale of sacrificial animals has accumulated on Facebook-YouTube.

Meanwhile, cashless transactions have become crowded in addition to cash transactions in offline shops than online. Due to counterfeiting, robbery, budget constraints, many people have started doing transactions on mobile phones in the same way as they are using bank booths, POS machines and QR codes in the haasil houses to take the offers of MFS institutions. In this case, along with bKash and Nagad, Upay also has the offer for sacrificial animal trade. BRAC Bank, Bank Asia, City Bank, Islami Bank, AB Bank, IFIC Bank, Pubali Bank and also Mastercard, Amex, Visa, bKash and Nagad are providing digital transaction facility in the market.

In 2020, 27,000 animals were sold at the first digital market. Next year i.e., in 2021, 3 lakh 87 thousand animals were sold in digital market. In the last year 2023, 4 lakh 63 thousand 96 animals were sold, the value of which is 4 thousand 231 crore 58 lakh 98 thousand taka. Around 60,000 animals were sold on this platform in 2022 despite the very low incidence of Corona. Sacrificial animals are being bought and sold on this digital platform this year as well. However, animal sales on this platform decreased further last year. A total of 56 thousand 821 animals were sold that year. Among them, 47 thousand 757 were cows and buffaloes and 9 thousand 64 were goats and sheep. This year the account was not available until yesterday Friday.