Agricultural market information systems in developing countries: New models, new impacts

Abstract

Market information systems (MIS) developed in two steps in developing countries. A first generation of MIS emerged in the 1980s when most developing countries liberalized their agriculture, and a second generation followed in the 2000s driven by various factors such as the difficulties faced by the MIS of the first generation to reach their objectives, the new opportunities offered by the development of ICT -Internet and cell phonesand the increasing organization of market players (farmer organizations, interprofessional organizations). Contrary to first generation MIS (1GMIS), which were almost all built on the same model, 2GMIS developed many technical and organizational innovations, giving birth to a great diversity of models. What are the main innovations developed by 2GMIS? What are currently the main MIS models? To what extent can these new models allow MIS to overcome the limitations of 1GMIS to reach their objectives (improve markets and/or inform policies through market information)? What do we know on MIS impacts? This article and the special issue it introduces address these questions.

Take an inch for a mile. About an error of metrics in WTO rules and its impact on the ability of countries to build public stocks for food security

“…In addition, competition may be imperfect, with concentration and market power at some supply chain levels. The practical implication is that the domestic price PD should be estimated as the average of prices observed at the farm gate level in many parts of the country and throughout the whole year (market information systems usually collect this kind of data, see Galtier et al, 2014). This is the method already used by the OECD (to estimate the domestic price) and the WTO (to estimate the production value of a given commodity).…”

Impacts of Aggregator Business on Farmers’ Income

“…The utilization of information technology including information systems in the agricultural sector can increase farmers' incomes (Galtier et al 2014;Lee and Suzuki 2015;Delima et al 2016). In the process of marketing agricultural products, the aggregator through applications, websites, and utilizing the internet network can provide price information on agricultural products.…”

The Role of Online Aggregators in The Vegetable Value Chain

“…Other costs are transportation costs borne by the aggregator. Utilization of information technology including information systems in the agricultural sector can increase farmers' incomes (Galtier et al 2014;Lee and Suzuki, 2015;Delima et al 2016).…”