Agricultural market information systems in developing countries: New models, new impacts (original) (raw)
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Review of agricultural market information systems in sub-Saharan Africa
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Agricultural market information systems (MIS) have been promoted to facilitate efficiency in the marketing of agricultural products and provide information for food security monitoring and policy formulations. This study sought to explore the functioning of MIS and to document lessons learned. Fourteen MIS representing different models were selected and reviewed using the Structure-Conduct-Performance model. Findings indicate that the main goal of these systems is to reduce information asymmetries among actors. Information provided is mostly limited to price and dissemination is through the use of different forms of media. The World Agroforestry Centre is an autonomous, non-profit research organization whose vision is a rural transformation in the developing world as smallholder households increase their use of trees in agricultural landscapes to improve food security, nutrition, income, health, shelter, social cohesion, energy resources and environmental sustainability. The Centre generates science-based knowledge about the diverse roles that trees play in agricultural landscapes, and uses its research to advance policies and practices, and their implementation that benefit the poor and the environment. It aims to ensure that all this is achieved by enhancing the quality of its science work, increasing operational efficiency, building and maintaining strong partnerships, accelerating the use and impact of its research, and promoting greater cohesion, interdependence and alignment within the organization.
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In first decade of 21st century reforms in agricultural markets were introduced in several developing countries of the world including improvement in tangible infrastructure as well as non-tangible reforms like farmer trainings, establishment of Agriculture Marketing System etc. The need for establishment and improvement of current Agriculture Market Information system (AMIS) for collection and dissemination was severely felt in 2007-08 after food crisis. This paper aims to review and evaluate the literature available on AMIS published from 1995 to 2018 showing the utility of market information and its impact on different stakeholders especially in developing countries. The use of AMIS, its components, working, economic utility of information for its different stakeholders like growers, policy makers and market functionaries and the challenges like cost involved, validity of data, accuracy and problems in its disseminations are reflected in this article. Review of literature finding...
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2010
Rural growth is seen as an engine to drive the economy of developing countries and the use of Agriculture Market Information Services (AMIS) is believed to enable this growth. This paper is based on a literature study and investigates the spread and use of AMIS in the least developed countries (n=49) in terms of users, management, funding, infrastructure, and data. We investigate success as well as failure aspects, and discuss the role of new technologies. Findings show that while new technologies can improve dissemination of information, collecting data economically and meeting high quality requirements remains major challenges. The study contributes by providing a comprehensive view of the challenges of AMIS in developing countries and an AMIS project evaluation matrix (IS-PEM) based on the findings, which together contribute to improving the design of future projects.
Agricultural Market Information Services in Developing Countries: A Review
Access to agricultural markets and marketing information are essential factors in promoting competitive markets and improving agricultural sector development. The agricultural sector employs majorities in developing countries and it contributes greatly to the development of these countries. Unluckily, majorities of the farmers are smallholders living in isolated rural areas and thus lack appropriate access to markets for their products and also they are deprived of agricultural market information. As a lack of these, smallholder farmers are exploited by greedy traders and receive low prices for t heir agricultural produce. This study has explored the use of agricultural market information services in linking smallholder farmers to markets, especially in sub-Sahara developing countries. Origin of, the needs for, and the current status of agricultural market information services in developing countries are clearly presented. Lastly, the study explored the limitation of the success of most agricultural market information services in sub-Sahara developing countries.
The Impact of embracing Information and communication Technology in the Agriculture Sector
International Journal of Scientific Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, 2022
Developing countries in Africa have been battling with the challenge of providing quality healthcare by arresting the food insecurity predicament through advocating for adoption of better Agricultural practices that can boost the yields, though the main impediment is lack or limited access to information on many aspects of agricultural research and development to the important stakeholders. This paper examines the various ICT platforms and technologies used in the Agricultural sector, statistics of their usage index and eventually ascertain whether they have any impacts on Agriculture and are also handy in addressing the looming food insecurity in Africa.
IMPORTANCE OF THE USE OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS BY FARMERS IN AFRICA
The desire of every nation is to provide goods and services that can actually satisfy citizens and also be enough for export in other to acquire foreign exchange. Due to scarce resources and diversity in human behavior, proper strategizing and planning built on Positive and negative science need to be considered. Human behavior cannot be determined with concrete certainty; we can only make assumptions based on certain conditions or occurrences. These assumptions help managers in managing limited resources. This goes a long way in helping a nation plan its production in matters of; what to produce, the quantity to produce and whom to produce for. The task of decision making, a must for every nation is one of the most difficult and unpredictable task faced by managers. However, with the advent of information Systems supported with decision support tools, managers can now to a greater extent make proper decisions. Information system is a collection and integration of components for data collection, storing, and processing in other to deliver information, knowledge, and digital products. Businesses and cooperation rely on Information systems to carry out operations, manage staff, and even lead customers. There is no doubt information systems have revolutionized virtually every sector of the economy it has been applied in. For example, in developed countries like the USA, Information systems have decongested highways through traffic management. Despite all the success stories resulting from the implementation of information systems, Agriculture in developing countries still struggles with implementation of information systems. With the design of several Farm management information systems (FMIS), one should have predicted an end to the shortage of Agricultural products in Africa, mismanagement of the farm or an end to the high rate of loss in agricultural commodities as a result of disease outbreak. However, this is not the case in Africa because; the implementation of information systems in Agriculture is faced with numerous design/implementation problems ranging from designer’s ignorance to end-users illiteracy. We are interested in uncovering the importance of information system in Agricultural farms in Africa and highlighting some limitations facing its implementation.
Access by smallholder farmers to markets has traditionally been constrained by lack of market information. Yet progress in smallholder agriculture is inconceivable without greater market participation. The desire to strengthen farmer access to market has thus resulted in the emergence of many agricultural projects that use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in developing countries over the last decade. These technologies focus on providing market information services (MIS) to farmers. This study uses regression techniques and data collected from 379 smallholder farmers in Kenya to examine the conditioners of awareness and use of ICT-based MIS. The study finds that transaction costs, the characteristics of the area in which ICT-based projects are implemented and farmer endowments with human and financial capital play an important role in smallholder farmers' awareness, use and/or extent of use of ICT-based MIS projects. It concludes that awareness and the use of ICT-based MIS is driven by farmer, farm and location-specific characteristics as well as various capital endowment factors. The study discusses the implications of these findings for policy and practice.
The government of Malawi has over the years initiated a number of agricultural market interventions including the recent electronic-based market information services in order to expose smallholder farmers to the exigency of market forces. The performance of agricultural markets is of significant importance in Malawi where agriculture remains the engine of growth. The study uses biprobit regression to examine drivers of awareness and adoption of electronic-based market information service interventions for farming business in Malawi. Using capability approach, it poses the hypothesis that farmers' awareness of ICT-based market information services determines use. Results indicate that household's awareness is positively influenced by owning a mobile phone, leasing some land and being a member of farmer group while being males, distant to agricultural field office and distance to the nearest electricity center are associated with lower likelihood of being aware. The paper also confirms that awareness raises use of ICT-based market interventions. In fact, drivers of ICT usage include income, membership in farmer group and awareness which interacts with distance to the nearest electricity center, distance to agricultural field office and land size. The study concludes that policy-makers will be valuable to work on formation of farmer organizations, access to power grid and land policy to create an enabling environment for awareness of electronic-based market interventions and ICT usage by farmers in Malawi.