Improving Agricultural Market Performance:
Developing Agricultural Market Information Systems
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2015). It is also below the 6% annual growth target set under the Africa Union’s Comprehensive
Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP).
7.1.2 MIS PERCEIVED AS IMPORTANT IN IMPROVING AGRICULTURAL
MARKETING IN UGANDA
The policy objective of improving institutional infrastructure, such as existing MIS, is expected
to help transform the growth performance of the sector by providing an informed basis for
actions by players and investors in agricultural value chains. One of the expectations is that by
providing information on commodity prices (e.g. in markets close to farmers’ communities), the
bargaining power of farmers will be strengthened. This information will also enable farmers to
adopt income-optimising marketing strategies because they will be able to choose which
markets and best timing for selling their produce. Other market players such as traders,
including exporters, will also be able to plan their produce purchases better. A reliable MIS is
also seen by policymakers as crucial in taking actions to manage food crisis as well as inform
strategies to promote sustained growth in output and productivity.
7.1.3 HISTORY OF MIS IN UGANDA
Uganda is one of the trailblazers in setting up MIS. The first among these is FOODNET (Box 8),
which was established late 1993 by the Postharvest and Marketing Research Network of
ASARECA hosted by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). The development
of the platform received financial support from the USAID and there was close collaboration
with the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) – an autonomous public agency
within the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) with responsibility
for public agricultural advisory/extension services. Collection of price data from the 19 district
markets which were covered was undertaken by field extension officers employed by NAADS.
There was another collaboration between FOODNET and the North-West Smallholder
Agricultural Development (NWSAD) Project, which was funded by the African Development
Bank. This resulted in five additional districts with 36 produce markets in the West Nile Region
being included. Enumerators deployed in West Nile Region were mainly Marketing Officers
employed under NWSAD Project.
Box 8: FOODNET in UgandaFOODNET involved the collection, analysis and dissemination of principally price data from several
markets in Uganda, starting with markets in the following six districts: Arua, Mukono, Soroti, Tororo,
Kibaale and Kabale. Later, with funding from USAID, this increased to markets in 19 districts.
Additional funding was provided for this activity through collaboration with NAADS, which received
financial support from the European Union. Dissemination of price data was mainly bymeans of radio
but was later extended to include access by means of text messages delivered by local mobile phone
networks. Sustainability of the MIS became a major challenge as donor funding for the initiative dried
up when projects under which the funding was provided ended.
Source: Butterworth R. and U. Kleih (2005) from notes from consultations with Martin Fowler.The data collected was transmitted via mobile text messages to collation unit at IITA offices in
Kampala, which employed data entry clerks to input price data collected. As was the case with
most of the 1GMIS at the time, dissemination of price information by FOODNET was initially
through national radio networks. Later FOODNET became one of the first in Africa use mobile
phone networks to disseminate market information – users sent text messages to the mobile