Speakers at a programme on Tuesday suggested that tech-based companies, both from home and abroad, develop digital technologies in order to modernise agricultural production and its marketing system.
There is a huge prospect for e-commerce in selling and marketing agro produce, linking grassroots producers with wholesalers and customers, ensuring fair competition for small farmers, and branding local quality agro-products globally, said the speakers.
The suggestion and observations came at a webinar on 'e-Commerce in Agriculture Sector for Rural Development & Transformation: Sharing Experiences of Thailand' - jointly organised by the France Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIFB) and the Centre for Integrated Rural Development for Asia and Pacific (CIRDAP) in collaboration with the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB).
Agriculture Minister Mohammad Abdur Razzaque addressed the event as the chief guest, while Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce Tapan Kanti Ghosh and Secretary of the Rural Development and Cooperative Division Md Mashiur Rahman spoke as special guests.
The keynote presentation at the programme from Thailand side was given by Jaruwan Jan-In, cooperative technical officer of the Agriculture Sector Cooperatives and Farmer Groups Development Division of Cooperative Promotion Department of Thailand, while ACI Agribusiness Managing Director and CEO Dr F H Ansarey gave a presentation on the role of e-commerce in agriculture of Bangladesh.
While delivering his speech, Mr Razzaque said compared to developed countries, Bangladesh was still far behind in terms of getting benefits from the use of e-commerce and digital technology in agriculture.
"But we are on the right track in transforming traditional agricultural practices into modern mechanised farming as the first step before adopting digital technologies in producing and marketing agro produce," he said.
Referring to Thailand's success in cooperative based agricultural production and marketing, he said, "Despite trying since the British period, the cooperative system didn't gain popularity among the Bangladeshi farming community due to many reasons like lack of leadership, quality management, and good governance."
However, group and contact farming has been getting popular in the country in recent years following commercialised agriculture initiated by large agribusiness companies, he noted.
In terms of e-commerce in agriculture, the minister sees good prospects for companies in marketing quality agro produce in home and abroad.
Referring to the government's positive approach towards providing policy support to the tech-based companies in agriculture, he said the Department of Agricultural Marketing had launched an app named 'Sadai' for trading agricultural products to ensure fair price for farmers.
Similarly, the ICT division has developed another platform called 'Food for Nation' to facilitate online marketing of agro products, said the minister.
In his presentation, ACI Agribusiness Managing Director Dr Ansarey said the e-commerce industry in the country grew by around 50 per cent year on year in 2021, with fulfilment of over 100,000 orders per day through around 2,000 websites and 50,000 Facebook pages.
However, most of the platforms only sell lifestyle goods while there is an enormous void in the agribusiness sector regarding digital integration, he said, adding that the industry would touch US$ 3.0 billion market by 2023.
Dr Ansarey said there were huge opportunities for e-commerce in selling and delivering low value but bulky inputs of seed, fertiliser, pesticides and feed, while high value services like farm mechanisation, animal vaccines, animal health and hygiene products, fish fry, calves and chicks could also be marketed.
Besides, investments from tech companies can be made to develop artificial intelligence (AI) based technologies for mechanised land preparation, pond construction, animal shed maintenance, harvesting, product haulage, etc, he added.
Moderated by CIRDAP Director General Dr Cherdsak Virapat, Assistant to the Thai President for Global Engagement, Digital and Innovative Economy Dr Voraprapa Nakavachara, CCIFB President Syed Mahmudul Huq, Head of Department (Agro-tech) for South Asia of Business France Vianney Meynier, and Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Chaldal Waseem Alim also spoke at the programme.
Citing a 2019 research on the economic impact of e-commerce on sellers in Thailand, Ms Nakavachara said following integration with different e-commerce platforms, Thai SMEs saw an 130 per cent increase in both online and offline sales while it was a 370 per cent increase in sales for the fully digital SMEs.
Besides, a 17 per cent employment increase was observed among the SMEs that sell products online while the companies that reinvested profits made by online sales recruited 46 per cent more employees in the subsequent years, she mentioned.
For the development of e-commerce at grassroots level of production, she recommended increasing coverage of high speed internet at an affordable price, making smart phones available at reasonable prices, increasing digital literacy among farmers through training, easing digital payment system in a secure way, improving regulatory environment, and increasing efficiency of logistics.
Speaking on the occasion, Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh said the Thai experience showed that the integration of e-commerce in agriculture had enabled the farmers to sell their products directly to the customers, ensuring competitive prices for both parties.
Despite some unscrupulous e-commerce platforms in the country, many companies have been seeing booming business since the pandemic erupted in the country in 2020, he said.
He also said that the government had taken stern actions against fraudulent e-commerce platforms in the last three months which would help bring discipline in the growing sector.
The government has initiated escrow service in online payment system to ensure protection of customers' money so that the customers gain confidence on e-commerce sites, added the commerce secretary.
Director of Agriculture Sector Cooperatives and Farmer Groups at Cooperative Promotion Department in Thailand Chai Kongkaew, development economist at Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research (PIER) in Thailand Dr Sommarat Chantarat, and Head of e-Commerce A2i Programme under ICT Division Rezwanul Haque Jami also spoke at the virtual event.
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