Farmers and traders in the COMESA region can now make informed decisions on trading in agricultural commodities following the emergence of a prompt market information service.
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa has designed a Regional Food and Agricultural Marketing Information System, (FAMIS), an electronic web based system that features key information on major agricultural commodities, trade and investment opportunities in the region. The system is supposed to help farmers in member countries access relevant agriculture marketing information, reducing the information gap that middlemen exploit to make a windfall at producers’ expense.
Issues relating to awareness of the service and ignorance in rural areas will be among challenges the system implementers will need to overcome. The system is part of harmonisation of the agriculture market access systems that have been developed elsewhere by other companies in the region.
Agriculture accounts for 32 per cent of total wealth generated by the COMESA region’s 400 million citizens. Out of the total intra-COMESA trade of $8 billion, about $3 billion is food and agricultural raw materials. Agricultural goods are the second largest category of products traded.
The information is distributed through cellphone SMS based, on data gathered before 9am every day except Sundays and public holidays. Thereafter farmers can either request the information through dialing a prescribed number or subscribe to automatically receive SMS messages. The information is also monitored by the Ministry of Agriculture for the purposes of verification.
The other ways to access the information is through a system known as Interactive Voice Response, which is a pre-recorded message system accessible through mobile and landlines at a cost slightly above normal operator charges.
Cidano Gakuru of the Agriculture Sector Coordinating Unit at Kenya's Ministry of Agriculture said market information is the “most crucial,” but the problem is that "most farmers are ignorant." Although he could not ascertain the number of users today, he said the ministry was encouraging spread of such information because it helps to enforce pricing benchmarks on commodities.
Business Daily Africa
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