Many cattle farmers, especially marginal and poor ones, across the country have started reaping benefits of a cattle insurance scheme based on digital health tracking system.
Phoenix Insurance and shurjoMukhi Ltd. have jointly launched the product recently, aiming to create awareness among cattle farmers about new technology.
The main objectives of the product -- shurjoMukhi praniSheba -- are to ensure prevention of inbreeding, monitoring of calves and continuous measurement of temperature and early detection of health disorders.
The shurjoMukhi Ltd. has been working in the ICT for Development (ICT4D) sector for the last nine years. Improving livelihood and financial access of livestock farmers using technology is one of them.
A contract has recently been signed to implement a project titled 'Creating Cattle Insurance Market by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Tracking in Bangladesh among shurjoMukhi and Phoenix Insurance and Business Finance for the Poor in Bangladesh (BFP-B)' aided by the UKAid.
Some cattle farmers said the product pricing should remain affordable, especially for the poor and marginal farmers, to make it easily accessible to them.
Gulzar Hossain, 48, an owner of Century Farms at Rupsha in Narayanganj district, said he has been rearing 50 cattle for three years. Of them, 16 cows were brought under the tracking system after the project was introduced recently.
"It is a new kind of product in the country which helps me run my farm smoothly as I instantly get services from the organisations," he said.
Mr Hossain said he is mainly getting benefit from continuous monitoring and measurement of temperature of cattle by the companies.
Even the system helps protect cattle from the incident of theft as it can detect cattle movement within 100 yards, he added.
Nahid Sultana, deputy general manager of Phoenix Insurance Company Ltd, said as cattle theft, mortality and diseases are common phenomena in the country, her company is helping the farmers recover loss.
"As this product is untraditional and unconventional, it will take time to be fully popular and accepted," she added.
Rafiqur Rahman, executive director & company secretary of Phoenix Insurance Company Ltd, said the product is getting popular day by day across the country as the people want assurance and insurance from a certain quarters to manage risk.
"Marginal farmers are getting assurance through this product in terms of their cattle mortality, theft and diseases," he said.
If cattle die, get infected with diseases and any incident of theft occurs at the time of cattle rearing, this product can insure the farmers against loss, he said.
The product pricing is fixed at Tk 2,750 for a cow for one year which is worth Tk 0.1 million, he said.
However, the company will reduce the price in the coming days to make it more popular, Mr Rafiq said.
Some 150 head of cattle have already been insured across the country especially in Pabna, Narayanganj, Sirajganj and Gazipur, he said.
The banks should offer loan for the farmers and the farmers can come under the insurance for at least one or two cows, he added.
Fida Haq, MD & CEO of shurjomukhi (IT farm), said shurjoMukhi praniSheba is a platform that helps dairy farmers in precision farming by offering a nationwide cattle wellbeing monitoring platform tied with cattle insurance.
The digital health tracking system is making the tasks of farmers easier as they are getting services within very short time, Mr Haq said.
It also helps the farmers in remote areas determine appropriate food items for cattle in time, he mentioned.
Even they are getting vaccines shortly after their cattle get infected with Foot and Mouth Disease, Mr Fida said.
The digital system has already tracked 140 cattle within one and a half months, he said, adding that it is getting popular among the cattle farmers.
