Improving Agricultural Market Performance:
Developing Agricultural Market Information Systems
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Developing market institutions such as agricultural commodity exchanges and WRS, which
foster structured trading based on standardised weights, measures and quality can generate
transparent prices which can increase uptake of MIS. At the same time such systems can enhance
agricultural marketing and finance, thereby creating incentives for increased investment in
raising farm productivity and output – making the new Mobipay system more fit-for-purpose.
However, there are challenges in developing the market institutions, as has been the general
experience in most African countries.
8.3 RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE MIS IN OIC MEMBER
COUNTRIES Based on the evidence from best-practices in the world obtained from the review of literature
as well as from the online survey and the three case study countries, the goals for which OIC
member countries set up MIS are yet to fully materialise. Further action is required to optimise
the benefits to be enjoyed, especially by market actors such as farmers, traders and financial
intermediaries. Towards this end, we propose the following recommendations:a. Designing MIS should specifically take into account the needs of target stakeholders:In designing MIS the focus should be on improving the content of the information provided.
The basic aim should be to align information provided to the identified needs of target
stakeholders, especially farmers, traders, financial intermediaries and other private actors
in the agricultural value chains. Hence, an assessment of the needs of the target
stakeholders as well as audience satisfaction reviews should be regularly undertaken by
providers. This is missing in all the cases reviewed but is crucial going forward.
b. MIS should go beyond price information to include trend analysis and forecasting:Based on evidence found on the expectations of market players, it is clear that the content
of MIS should go beyond price information and include reporting trend analysis which can
signal supply and demand conditions and allow market players to take positions regarding
immediate and future price levels. To achieve this, there needs to be investment in building
output forecasting capacity, which is becoming increasingly more feasible with advances in
ICT. It will also require promoting stock monitoring systems which can be built, for
example, around well-regulated WRS.
c.Linking MIS to other market-supporting institutions and/or other risk-management
tools to increase their mutual benefits: Indeed linking the development of MIS to that of
other market-supporting institutions such as WRS and agricultural commodity exchanges
can lead to mutual benefits. On one hand such institutional innovations will ensure that
price discovery is more transparent and therefore worth accessing. On the other hand,
effective and reliable MIS is an important prerequisite in successfully developing these
market institutions.
d. Government support ranging fromcross-subsidisation to direct external support can
sustain MIS: Sustainability of MIS remains a challenge as we found no single case in the
reviews where an existing platform has achieved financial sustainability. Internal cross-
subsidisation by private and government providers, arising from linkages to core functions
appear to reduce the scale of dependence on external agencies such as donors. It appears,