Improving Agricultural Market Performance:
Developing Agricultural Market Information Systems
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2.6.3 SECOND GENERATION MIS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES The Second Generation MIS (2GMIS) emerged in response to identified weaknesses with the
1GMIS. For instance, a key feature is reliance on internet and mobile phone applications in order
to provide “real time” information (Chiatoh and Gyau, 2016). This was intended to address the
problem time lag between collection and dissemination of information associated with the
1GMIS. Collection and transmission of prices from markets to a central unit, which used to take
several days, was reduced to only a few hours (ibid). The risk of human error in data entry was
also reduced through avoiding multiple data entries and the use of automated processing
(Galtier et al., 2014).Field survey staff continue to be used to collect data from a range of national markets (urban
and rural). However, the technology used allows for fast transmission and automated processing
of the data. The information is obtained through interviewing traders in the major rural and
urban markets as well as through telephoning major processing and commodity trading
companies to ask about average prices for the day or week. The only exception is the providers
which are commodity exchanges, which report prices discovered through trading on the
exchange floors. These and other formal commodity trading boards which regulate the export
of agricultural commodities also tend to report international market prices as well as relevant
export parity prices to guide exporters and suppliers. Where regional-level information is
disseminated, this does not always entail the use of own staff but collection of information
through data sharing with various partners.As shown in Table 1, the range of information was also expanded beyond prices for the major
staple crops and livestock to include other products. Different types of providers have also
emerged in addition to public and include private companies which may be involved in
commodity trading and/or may be supported by donors; MIS linked to NGOs and
professional/representative organisations such as farmers’ organisations; and MIS linked to
commodity exchanges.