• Money will go to the trader's account only once the buyer has seen the animal and is satisfied.
• Buyers who do not like the sacrificial animal will be able to return it.

Touring the market to pick an animal for Eid-ul-Azha is a time-honoured tradition, but the market has now been touched by modernity. As part of the drive towards a digital and smart Bangladesh, traders are selling thousands of animals straight from farms through an online platform, and buyers can choose animals from home. This modern system is called "Digital Haat".

Digital Haat formally took off during Eid-ul-Azha in 2020 to curb the spread of Covid, and gained wide popularity across the country in 2021. But in 2022 people's interest began to fall, because some traders showed buyers photos of one animal online and delivered another. There were also complaints of a lack of transparency in payments for online sales. At the same time, Covid restrictions were relaxed, and interest in buying animals online fell.

Digital Haat is running again ahead of this year's Eid-ul-Azha, with a target of 50,000 animals. However, those involved expect online sales could be 20 percent lower this time because of the end of Covid and animal prices.

In 2020, the "DNCC Digital Haat" was first organised by the Bangladesh Dairy Farmers Association (BDFA), the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB), the ICT Division's a2i and the Dhaka North City Corporation. As it became popular, the government took charge of running it, and in 2021 it was named "Digital Haat". The commerce ministry, the fisheries and livestock ministry and Ekshop have since joined in organising it.

e-CAB sources said online sales of sacrificial animals have already begun under e-CAB's management with technical support from Ekshop of the government's Aspire to Innovate (a2i) programme. The Department of Livestock Services and local markets are linked to the Digital Haat.

The ICT Division has launched a website for buying and selling animals through Digital Haat, promoted with slogans such as "Staying safe matters now, the market any time without going to the market", "From market to hand in one click" and "Buy the sacrificial animal you like from anywhere in the country through Digital Haat". The website shows 60 farms from different parts of the country. Animal categories include cattle, goats, sheep, dumba, camels and buffaloes, and clicking a category shows details of each animal.

In the cattle category (local bull), Kader Agro Limited of Gazipur has posted a photo of a 645 kg bull priced at Tk 5 lakh 8 thousand (fixed price). The listing says: "On our own farm, it is fed rice bran, wheat bran, anchor pulse bran, chickpea bran, grass and straw in a completely natural way. No fattening drugs or vaccines are used, and no fattening feed is given. In other words, it is fed entirely natural food."

Mohammad Abdul Wahed Tamal, general secretary of e-CAB, told Jagonews: "In three years we have brought about 10,000 farmers into this process. They have sold animals online in various ways, and many have benefited directly. The market will expand further in future."

Fisheries and livestock ministry sources said online platforms have been launched in every upazila. Before uploading a photo of an animal online, the farmer must obtain a health certificate for it from the relevant veterinary surgeon. The Department of Livestock Services will help farmers connect to the online platforms and, when uploading, will give the owner's name, address and mobile number and the animal's age, weight, price and photo.

Once an animal is chosen and the price agreed, the authorities will verify the buyer and seller and send the buyer an online payment link. The buyer pays through the link and the seller delivers the animal to the address. The Digital Haat management will supervise the whole process, said Jahangir Alam Shovon, e-CAB executive director and field-level coordinator of Digital Haat.

According to e-CAB, 27,000 animals were sold in the first year of the DNCC Digital Haat in 2020. Through Digital Haat, 3,87,000 sacrificial animals were sold in 2021, and last year, 2022, about 60,000 animals were sold on the platform. This year's target is 50,000, which is 20 percent lower than last year.

Jagonews spoke to those involved about why online sales of sacrificial animals are falling. In their view, the digital cattle market was launched during Covid restrictions in 2020; those restrictions no longer exist, and animal prices have risen a great deal.

In addition, some irregularities came to light in online sales in 2021 and 2022. Many customers did not like the animals they bought online: what they received did not match the photo they had chosen from, and many customers complained of being cheated.

DNCC mayor Atiqul Islam said there is no room for that this time. He told Jagonews: "DNCC is working with other government agencies to implement Digital Haat. It will save people time. But in previous years there were some cases of mismanagement in animal sales and payments, most often complaints of one animal being shown online and another handed over. That created various complications over refunds. This time steps have been taken to end the mismanagement."

"Now, when a buyer buys an animal online, the trader will not get the money directly. The money will first be held under Bangladesh Bank's supervision. When the buyer receives the animal and is satisfied with it, the money will go to the trader's account. For this the buyer will have to confirm satisfaction through a specific online option. Otherwise, if the buyer does not like the animal, they can return it. There will be no room for anyone to cheat," he said.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.