Home ›› 13 Aug 2021 ›› Nation
Located at the far end of Pabna, cattle farmers’ village Horapara in Bhangura upazila is witnessing a massive change in selling cattle online.
Abdul Kader, an educated young man from a remote village Horapara, became the trendsetter, who left his managerial job at a well-known convention centre in Dhaka. He returned to his village in 2014. Soon after his return to ancestral home, he started fodder business with a meager capital of Tk 1.5 lakh.
Time ticked by and Kader raised some Holstein Friesians cows in his cowshed. He was planning about their sale. A curious thought of advertising his cattle on Bikroy.com dawned on him. This ignited customers’ calls from within and outside the country such as the Middle East and Europe. Within the next week, six out of the eight cattle reared in his farm were sold at good prices. This encouraged him to branch out his business into setting up a cattle buying and selling company--‘Mrittika Dairy Farm’. From a fodder trader he became an online cattle salesman upon opening the platform.
Inspired by his success, people from different strata in the village, including two of his brothers, started initiated online platforms within six months to do cattle business.
Shahibul Islam, another tech-savvy guy, floated ABC Cattle Farm and started his business following the footsteps of his fellow villager.
“Around 10-20 unemployed youth are being employed in each farm as shepherds. If someone has a rough idea of running multimedia equipment, internet and knowledge of advertising the cattle on YouTube and other social media, a job can be bagged easily. Depending on the work, these workers get a salary of Tk10 to Tk25 thousand a month. And as a side income some farmers usually earn Tk 10,000 to Tk 30,000 from their farm's channel,” said Shahib.
Abdul Kader and Shahibul Islam not exception rather dozens entrepreneurs opened their online platforms to buy and sale cattle in the village and adjacent areas.
With the expansion of a high-speed mobile network in 2017, they started uploading videos of the animals in the form of advertisements and news reports on their YouTube channels. The response was far better than e-commerce and f-commerce platforms.
Centering such online sales activities, businesses such as cattle feed production, transportation, renting land for farms sprouted, stoking economic activities and churning out jobs.
“Not just online business dairy farms are also contributing to the economic growth of the area. Many banks have set up their branches around the cattle business. Old shaggy homes of villages are replaced with brick buildings, and overall living standard of people has been uplifted,” said Golam Hasnain Rashel, Mayor of Bhangura Municipality of Pabna.
Beside Haropara, at least 100 online cattle selling platforms have been set up in Mothurapur, Arankhola areas of Ishwardi and Chatmohar Upazila, said Zahurul Islam, Upazilla Livestock Officer, Bhangura of Pabna.
“Here 150-200 cattle worth at least Tk 2-3 crore are bought and sold every day in Haropara village alone,” Rashel added.
Although the region is well-known for a local breed name ‘Pabna Cattle’ which the Agriculture Information Service (AIS) of the Government claimed to be patronised by the Poet Rabrindranath Tagore in the late eighteenth century.
According to local farmers, the Pabna breed is being replaced by Shahiwal, Gir, Indo-Pak bulls, Holstein Friesians, Rani and Jersey which are high-yielding both in terms of milk and meat.
