Improving Agricultural Market Performance:
Developing Agricultural Market Information Systems
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Indonesia in the 1990s was one of the lead countries in operating 1GMIS and has continued to
maintain a predominantly government-run system. It has in place legislative framework with
clearly defined roles for various government agencies in providing market information. The
Ministry of Agriculture focuses on collecting and disseminating wholesale prices for agricultural
produce whilst the remit of the Ministry of Trade concentrates on retail prices. The Badan Pusat
Statistik (BPS or National Office of Statistics) has statutory authority to regulate information
collection and dissemination, including assuring the quality of information disseminated.
Government funds MIS operations, in part through utilising part of the staff time of personnel at
relevant district, provincial and national levels. The information collected is shared with major
players such as WFP, which monitors the food supply situation principally for food security
reasons.Despite being well-structured and generating information which is valuable to policymakers,
evidence obtained from this study shows that farmers and other market actors are not accessing
the MIS and using the information provided as a basis for their marketing strategies and
investment decisions. For instance, farmers and traders in and around Bogor, who were
interviewed during the study, indicated that they mainly obtain price information by phoning
potential buyers in different markets. As such the mobile phones (standard phones or
smartphones) play an important role for farmers in terms of obtaining information for
bargaining but not as anticipated in theory – i.e. by checking published prices. The ongoing
development of WRS and structured trading systems, including auction markets, which is led by
the government regulator COFTRA, is anticipated to boost the quality of information
disseminated by MIS whilst enhancing prospects for successful development of the market
institutions.
Uganda has advanced from being one of the pioneers of 1GMIS in the 1990s (with FOODNET) to
a landscape populated by a wide range 2GMIS platforms provided by the government and
private organisations as well as by NGOs. The diversity of existing MIS platforms is further
shown by the fact that whilst some were limited to national coverage, especially the private ones,
others covered regional and international market information. However, most of the
stakeholders consulted reported not being aware of and/or not accessing existing MIS. The
stakeholders include farmers, traders (both small-scale rural traders and large-scale ones),
warehouse operators and bankers. Even among policymakers, several did not consult the
existing MIS. The only exceptions are policymakers working on food security and agricultural
extension issues such as NAADS, and development practitioners whose remit includes
interventions to mitigate food crisis (e.g. officials of WFP and USAID).Among the factors identified as limiting uptake of existing MIS by key market actors in the
country is the apparent disconnect between the information stakeholders perceive as crucial to
their trade and investment decisions and what is offered on the MIS platforms. Trend analysis
is oftenmissing and the price information provided tends to be de-linked fromquality standards
which are enforced in the formal segments of the markets. Reliable output forecasts and data on
available stocks within the country are often not reported. Also missing, as is the case in Uganda,
is information on prices and availability of quality inputs. The price data reported also does not
reflect actual transactions with auditable trail but rather information obtained by phoning or
interviewing traders. Farmers and traders in both Indonesia and Uganda find it quicker and
more reliable to phone their peers and other traders directly rather than consult MIS. As is the
case in most countries, policymakers appear to be the most equipped to utilise market
information for policy actions, including food security.