Improving Agricultural Market Performance:
Developing Agricultural Market Information Systems
55
4.3 MIS IN ASIAN GROUP OIC MEMBER COUNTRIES
In the Asian Group of OIC countries, MIS in two countries are the focus of the review: Malaysia
and Turkey. The size of agriculture relative to the rest of the economy in both countries is rather
small. In 2016 it accounted for only 8.7% of GDP and employed 11% of the labour force in
Malaysia. In Turkey, the sector contributed only 6.9% of GDP and employed 18.4% of the labour
force in 2016. However, there are interesting examples of MIS in both countries. Malaysia, for
instance, has two examples of MIS, one for the vegetable subsector (where the bulk of the
produce is sold in the open market) and the other for palm oil, which is traded through a
commodity exchange – Bursa Malaysia. Whilst the country is a net importer of vegetables, it is a
major exporter of palm oil and related products. In the case of Turkey, the example of interest is
the evolving system which facilitates financing of the agricultural sector by formal financial
intermediaries.
4.3.1 MALAYSIA’S MIS FOR VEGETABLES Production of vegetables is mainly by smallholder producers with an average farm size of about
1.3 hectares and who use mainly traditional low-technology farming methods as well as large-
scale commercial producers located mainly in the highlands (Low 1993). Farmers mainly sell on
a consignment basis to rural assemblers or wholesalers and/or their agents. Quite often
producer prices are determined only after the sale of the crop in the main urban wholesale
markets – which may take between two and three days. This creates considerable uncertainty
about producer prices, necessitating the creation of a reliable MIS which can engender trust and
foster transactions.The Ministry of Agriculture in Malaysia is responsible for the MIS, which is hosted in its Macro
and Strategic Planning Division. The Division collaborates with about 30 agricultural
associations, trade associations and chambers of commerce in Malaysia. These organisations
collect primary price data from their members at the district level and from the major wholesale
markets. As occurs in many other developing countries, this function tends to be duplicated as
other agencies of the government also get involved in collecting primary price data. For instance,
the Department of Statistics collects similar data as does the Federal Agricultural Marketing
Authority (FAMA). The staff of FAMA at the various branches collect primary price data and
transmit to the head office three times in a week. The data is then analysed and disseminated
via an automated telephone answering service and through a database accessible via its website.
The flow of information is illustrated in Figure 19.