Move over cattle fairs. Dairy farmers are taking to online marketplaces to buy and sell bovines.
Take Ghomtiben Patel, a dairy farmer in Gujarat’s Kheda district, who has put her 4-year-old buffalo on sale for ₹1.10 lakh on Pashudhan, an eBay like marketplace for cattle introduced by Amul recently.
All Ghomtiben had to do was upload three photographs of the animal on the Android mobile app along with details such as its breed, location, and a day’s milk yield (14 litres). Over 160 farmers saw the post, with four showing interest in buying it.
Pashudhan is part of the Amul Milk Producers’ App — a free app for the 36 lakh dairy producers who are part of the co-operative giant. Launched two months ago, the app is fast gaining traction with over 900 posts with a transaction value of ₹5 crore placed on it. On sale are 256 female buffaloes of Banni, Jaffrabadi, Mehsana, Murrah, Surti and other breeds. About 330 cow breeds such as Holstein Friesians, Gir, Sahiwal, Kankrej and Dangi are up for sale too.
There are also two dozen bulls and male buffaloes on sale. The price sought for the cattle ranges from ₹32,000 to as high as ₹2 lakh per animal.
“It is a wonderful tool for transparent cattle trade, which was earlier completely dependent on references and commission agents.
“This directly connects the buyer and the seller, thereby providing transparency and savings on commission,” said Shamalbhai Patel, Chairman of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns the Amul brand.
24X7 marketplace
According to Jayen Mehta, Chief Operating Officer, Amul, “this has become a 24×7 marketplace for cattle. Farmers can negotiate for price and filter the search criteria based on their preferred distance, breed, type of cattle, productivity, price range, location, etc.”
For the dairy major, the app provides massive real-time data on cattle, enabling it to do trend analysis and keep an eye on the developments on the ground.
As per the Amul database, the 36 lakh producers registered with milk cooperative societies in Gujarat between them own 25 lakh indigenous cows, over 35 lakh hybrid cows and more than 70 lakh buffaloes.