š² Amazon for Cattle, Diet Charts for Cows?
Technology is revolutionising cattle trading and cattle rearing. Hereās how.
The only profession where one can say gamble and hard work in the same sentence ought to be farming. Yes, the curveball called āweatherā makes farming as risky as it can get.
This is why over 70% of small farmers depend on livestock to supplement their income.
However, even the buying and selling of these cattle is a huge hassle.
Wondering why?
ReadOn!
š The Complexities of the Cattle Business
Even though the livestock sector contributes to 4.11% of our GDP and provides employment to 8.8% of the population, it is still very unorganised.
Many farmers still struggle to buy and sell cattle.
The most common way farmers or for that matter anyone can trade their cattle is through cattle fairs.
But the problem is that these events take place once or twice a year, forcing farmers to wait a long time to get their hands on the animals they want.
This is also a problem for sellers. Often when a farmer's crops fail, they have to struggle with something as basic as feeding cattle. If only they had the opportunity to sell off these animals.
But because they can't, they have to set these animals free. These animals then enter othersā farms and eat up their crops, causing more and more problems.
Plus, these cattle fairs are also not the cleanest places. Animals bought in these fairs could contract a lot of diseases, creating additional problems for farmers.
This is exactly why these cattle fairs are now losing steam. The attendance at these fairs has now dropped by almost 75%!
Many young entrepreneurial individuals saw these problems and did what they do best: created startups to solve them.
And platforms like Animall, MoooFarm, Pashushala, PashuLok, and e-Gopala were born.
These platforms are just like Amazon for animals.
They connect sellers and buyers who are close by, who can then contact each other and make purchases.
So, farmers can list and buy animals easily from these platforms at any time.
Now, a lot of farmers may not be interested in just looking at pictures of cattle and buying them.
So, these apps have other features too to convert browsing farmers into customers.
For instance, on Animall, farmers can connect to veterinary doctors and consult them about whether or not they should buy a particular animal.
MoooFarms is creating an artificial intelligence and machine learning based model, which can identify which animals are worth buying and which animals should be skipped.
These apps can also help farmers verify which breed of animals they are buying and if the claims made by the seller are accurate.
So, problem solved?
Well, only partly.
You see, buying and selling is not the only problem with this space.
The problem also lies in taking care of the cattle.
š„Not an Easy Task
Many farmers are uneducated and do not know the right way of taking care of their animals.
Lack of good fodder and the high cost of cattle feed means that a lot of these farmers give low-quality food to their animals, which leads to the deterioration of their health and decreases their productivity.
Plus, many of these farmers also miss the ovulation cycles of their cows.
This causes delays in the mating process and farmers lose out on months of milk.
All of this is why despite being the biggest producer of milk, Indiaās annual milk yield from cattle is 50% less than the global milk yield.
As usual, startups have come to farmersā rescue in this space as well.
How?
Startups like Krimanshi and E-Feed are trying to increase the productivity of cattle by providing low-cost but nutritious food for them.
While Krimanshi focuses on creating nutritious low-cost fodder from food and agricultural waste for animals, E-Feed dives deeper into the issue, looking at what nutrients poultry and dairy animals should be getting on a daily basis.
E-Feedās detailed diet charts have increased the income of over 2 lakh farmers by 50%!Ā
Thatās not all.
Companies like StellApps Labs, and BrainWired have created wearables that can track the ovulation cycles and the overall health of the animals, making things much much easier for farmers.
The only problems left to solve? Lack of trust and funds.
You see, a lot of farmers are uneducated and have a deep distrust of all things tech-related.
Convincing them to embrace technology overnight, just because they have been made aware of it, is an impossible task.
So, the government first needs to step in and help educate these farmers.
It is in fact taking some strides in this space and has launched many apps for educating farmers.
But a lot more active participation is needed from the governmentās end to make an active difference in farmersā lives.
ā” In a line: Startups are making a difference in the world of cattle trading but government intervention is needed to truly revolutionise this sector.
š” Quick question: Do you think the government will partner with startups to help farmers?
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