shurjoMukhi praniSheba helping farms during the coronavirus pandemic

Jahidul Alam Farhad, a farm manager of a dairy farm in Natore was feeling very anxious as one of his cows was about to give birth in this chaotic time. As he was registered with a platform named shurjoMukhi praniSheba, they came to the rescue. 

Jahidul received an SMS alert on his phone with the time of the delivery. Being informed beforehand, he managed a separate and clean place for the cow to deliver. 

With the help of an expert veterinary team of the shurjoMukhi praniSheba platform and the local livestock office, he was able to tackle the difficulties of calving safety. 

With Covid-19 crisis badly hitting the dairy sector of Bangladesh, the frustrated farmers are spilling down cans full of milk because of not getting the expected price. The sales of the products produced in this sector are declining. But that's not the only problem. 

With declining prices, another problem emerged. Due to the countrywide shutdown, the availability of proper animal healthcare became scarce. The risk factor in the industry has skyrocketed since farmers cannot access quality healthcare if the cattle get sick. 

This is where service like shurjoMukhi praniSheba come in.

shurjoMukhi praniSheba is a digital platform that uses IoT (Internet of Things) and RFID technologies - among a plethora of other technologies. It operates in the rural areas of the country to determine and record cow species, genetic development, conservation of information, reproduction, dairy management and provision of primary treatment. 

A cattle insurance policy to safeguard cattle farmers is part and parcel of the platform. This digital platform combined with its unique tie-up to insurance is helping a lot of farmers to cope with this crisis with less risk. 

The whole process is very simple. A smart bolus device is installed in the animal's stomach which is used to identify the animal and monitor its health. That bolus sends information to the central server using the base station and router on the farm. 

This system enables the farmer to monitor the health status of the entire herd even from home, which is a necessity in this crisis. The platform empowers the farmers to take precautionary steps in case of any disease or sudden sickness through prior notification through both SMS and app. 

Through this, a farmer can seek help from the expert veterinary team of praniSheba after receiving any alert of sickness. This helps them to tackle the high-risk factor of cattle mortality by prompt medical treatment. 

"The crisis we are in right now is changing the definition of normal as nothing will remain the same. To cope with the new normal, new technology like praniSheba has to be introduced and made widespread. Only then, we will be able to sustain the new normal in agriculture and food security," CEO of shurjoMukhi Ltd Fida Haq said.