Pakistan is an agrarian economy and has nearly 70% of its population engaged in agriculture practices. Moreover, agriculture accounts for 19.8 percent of the country’s GDP. Despite the role that agriculture plays in the economy, it remains underutilized. One of the most underutilized sectors within Pakistan’s agriculture market is livestock during the times of Eid-ul-Adha. The number of farm animals in Pakistan consists of 23.34m buffaloes, 22.42m cattle, 24.24m sheep, 49.14m goats, and 0.77m camels. The rural masses rear most of these animals. However, they do possess sufficient knowledge of technicalities regarding animal husbandry. Moreover, they do not possess the required capital to invest in prevention, treatment, and control of animal ailments.
Moreover, the livestock sector has many more problems. Livestock health is a limiting factor in increasing productivity. Furthermore, people also pay little attention to breeding practices. Mostly bulls with low genetic potential are used which restricts improvements in production. All these mentioned issues lead to inefficiencies in the sector, which causes it to remain underutilized.Â
One major factor that can improve the overall efficiency of the livestock sector is access to technology. However, enabling this access is especially challenging considering the informal nature of the market and the literacy of those involved. With this in mind, it is important to understand that the introduction of digital access in this market would need to be phased out and will require greater involvement and incentivization as compared to other markets. That being said, it is safe to say that effort to digitize this sector is being made, and the most prominent one amongst them is the effort to digitize the largest livestock markets in Pakistan which are established on the occasion of Eid ul Adha. One such online marketplace is Maweshemandi.com which allows users to buy and sell sacrificial animals online through their technology-driven platform.
Eid ul Adha has always been a very important event in Pakistan, and over the years the market for sacrificial animals in Pakistan has developed into one of the biggest in South Asia. However, the market for sacrificial animals had not been digitized yet. This is where Mawesh E-Mandi saw a huge opportunity and created Pakistan’s first online marketplace for sacrificial animals.
The online platform allows people who want to sell their sacrificial animals to register as vendors and sell their sacrificial animals online. To incentivize vendor registration Mawesh E-Mandi does not have any vendor registration fees, but works on a commission basis.
Similarly, for buyers, the online platform allows users to browse through a variety of animals and place a bid for an animal of their liking. They inform the customer if the bid is successful. After which a team from Mawesh E-Mandi visits the animal to verify its health condition and details. The animal is shipped to the buyer once the verification is complete and the payment is received. The platform also allows buyers to place a customized order by submitting the exact specification of their animal, along with their price range. After receiving the order, Mawesh E-Mandi procures the required animal from its network of vendors.
Lastly, given the current COVD 19 situation, the platform has also launched an Ijtima E-Qurbani service where people can book their animals online, and have processed meat delivered at their homes.
Digitization efforts like Mawesh E-Mandi are the need of the time and are increasing the efficiency of the livestock sector.
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