Improving Agricultural Market Performance:
Developing Agricultural Market Information Systems
28
helpful focusing on indicators such as selling price and quantity sold (David-Benz et al., 2016).
A survey found that 84 percent of listeners of a radio-based MIS campaign provided to a number
of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa based on their local/regional markets considered the
programmes to be “very useful”, though there was no analysis done on how this translated to
welfare indicators such as farm incomes (quoted in FAO 2007; Farm Radio International, 2011).
It has been suggested that the attraction of private sector sponsorship because of the
success/reach of the programme could be part of the future business model to ensure
sustainability (FAO, 2017).
Aker (2010) found the use of cell phones in Niger significantly reduced price variability across
markets though more recently Aker and Fafchamps (2014) have concluded that while mobile
phone coverage reduced spatial producer price dispersion by for a semi-perishable commodity
no effects were found for those with a longer shelf life which were stored by farmers i.e. millet
and sorghum.Mo dvanced econometric studies (e.g. panel data studies) and the use of randomised control
trial have been conducted in recent years. Kizito (2011) and Kizito et al. (2012) found using
pane ataset for households in Mozambique that there were significant gains for those that
were rovided with information. For example, the mean price difference for those with
information was 12 percent higher for maize compared to the control group. Courtois and
Subervie (2014) showed that farmers benefiting from an MIS programme received, for example,
a 10 percent price increase for maize and a 7 percent price increase for groundnuts, compared
to the price they would have received if they had not participated in the programme. Likewise,
benefits were found by Nakasone (2013) in a randomized control trial set up in Peru. Price
information related the most common crops were provided over several months by SMS.
Farmers receiving this information were found to have benefited from higher sales prices
compared to those in the control group.Despite these gains, it is evident from cases discussed in Chapters 3 and 4 that major challenges
remain to be addressed in enhancing the utility of MIS to market players in particular. For
instance, it is apparent that farmers and traders do not only require accurate price information
on a timely basis but also need information such as forecast output as well as stock levels which
can influence perceptions on future prices and therefore inform the marketing strategies which
they adopt. Trade facilitation is another area which has emerged as an unmet need.
2.7 BEYOND 2GMIS: FURTHER EVOLUTION OF MIS IN DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES Further advances in MIS have continued beyond the typical 2GMIS, most of them focusing on
deploying technology to address some of its identified challenges. The main distinguishing
advance is the development of a database of farmers, traders and other key actors as part of the
MIS platform. This makes it possible to monitor output by and available marketable surplus
from producers. It also allows traders and processors to post demand and attempts to facilitate
4 A randomised control trial is this instance is where farmers are randomly selected and provided with information through
their mobile phone (treatment group) compared to another randomly selected group that are not provided with any
information (control group) (FAO, 2017).