Farmers find their voices on Krishibazaar
Bangladesh is a rich country. Even if not monetarily, the nation is rich in its soil. We as a nation are fortunate to have soil that facilitates the production of such a wide variety of agricultural products. With agriculture being the most promising asset of Bangladesh as well as considering the ever-increasing price of food, one would expect the farmers of Bangladesh to be anything but poor. However, that is rarely the case. The farmers are producing good yields and we consumers are paying a good price for it. Then why don't the farmers prosper? The problem lies in unscrupulous practices of the middlemen. Due to lack of proper education and means to get the right information, these farmers fall prey to them and end up not getting their due pay. Keeping this in mind, banglalink, country's second largest operator, has launched a new service called "Banglalink Krishibazaar (Banglalink Agro Bazaar)". By this service, any banglalink customer can dial "2474" to get registered in Krishibazaar, record his/her own desired agro product information for trading or browse through by listening to other's uploaded information and call up that trader instantly using the service to finalize the coveted deal. The information of the products is available by categories, prices, locations etc to make the process easier for the targets. The program uses voice prompts to guide both buyers and sellers step by step through the whole procedure. Keeping in mind the education issue of most farmers, the whole program uses the medium of voice recording to gather details of the user's needs. The distinctiveness of recording one's own advertisement of their agro-product is what makes it stand out. "Banglalink is seriously keen towards making a difference in the field of agriculture by initiating and bringing the latest services for the masses of the country," said Ifthekhar Azam, assistant manager of PR and communications, banglalink. "We have been trying to bring services that can really change people's lives. We were the first ones to bring services like Krishi Jiggasha, Agri info services with AIS and the latest in that list is Krishi Bazar, a service which has broken the wall between an original producer of farming goods / fisheries and a seller." Farmers don't need to be dictated by the middlemen anymore and can sell their items directly to retailers or consumers. This has already been appraised worldwide, and recently it has been nominated for m billionth award in the category of new initiative. "We are very much focused on working in a direction that can improve the life of the people of Bangladesh with our innovative products and services to support Government's vision towards making Digital Bangladesh," he added. The charge of the service was kept low to benefit poor farmers. The number of unique subscribers call to the service is 180k within first 3 months of the launch. Average number of subscription calls in the service is 1953 per day. All in all, the service ensures a fair price and convenience for the hardworking root level farmers who are the actual food makers of the nation.
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