Making Marketing Information Services Relevant to Farmers

Making Marketing Information Services Relevant to Farmers
—ANDREW W SHEPHERD*
Norma l ly,  when  I  make   a  pr e s ent a t ion on ma rke t
information I begin with a discussion of the benefits of
MIS. However, I think I can assume that we all know those
and will move on straight away to discussing how to make
information relevant to farmers.
2. Acccuracy, availability, applicability and analysis are the
four "As" of market information. If MIS are to have any
meaning for farmers the information they provide must be
accurate and farmers must understand to which product,
quality, etc. the prices refer. Further, even if prices are
completely accurate, they are of much use if they are only
available to farmers too late for them to use effectively. I will
spend most of this presentation looking at ways of quickly
disseminating information to farmers, both now and in the
future as the possibilities offered by new technology open
up. Thirdly, farmers need to be able to apply the accurate
informa t ion made   ava i l abl e   to  them.  Thi s   r equi r e s   a
knowledge of how to convert prices they receive from the
MIS into a realistic price at their local market or farm gate.
Finally, farmers need long-term data, which has been analyzed
in such a way that they can make decisions about when to
plant and harvest and what new crops to diversify into.
Accuracy
3. Providing accurate information requires attention to a lot
of different issues. FAO has a publication on how to set up an
MIS and this goes into considerable detail about how to ensure
prices are accurate. It is not presently available in book form
but can be downloaded from our website. MIS need to ensure
that there is agreement on the variety of each product. On
one of my visits to Yangon I attended the annual Mango
Festival. There were 63 varieties of Mango on display. Clearly
the MIS cannot cover 63 varieties of one product but it does
need to make sure that when it reports on mango prices farmers
know which varieties are being referred to. Then there is the
question of quality. Does the price of mangoes refer to
beautiful, clean unblemished mangoes; to dirty, bruised
mangoes, or to something in between the two extremes? MIS
in each country need to agree on quality definitions and
consistently apply them throughout the country. Otherwise
you could have the situation where farmers who have poor
quality mangoes to sell would hear that the price was high in
Yangon market, and would go to the market, only to find that
the price quoted by the MIS was for the top quality. FAO
recommends that the concept of "Fair Average Quality" should
be used as the basis for price reporting.
4. The type of transaction can be confusing for farmers and
often, probably, for the price collectors themselves. In one
market there may be several types of transaction: farmer
selling to retailer; farmer selling to wholesaler; wholesaler
selling to retailer; trader selling to wholesaler; trader selling
to retailer; retailer selling to consumer, not to mention the
role of commission agents in some countries. Which price
does the MIS report on? There are two main criteria to be
adopted: which price is most useful to the farmer and,
balancing that, which price is easiest to collect. Whatever
transaction price is used, it must be used consistently. And
farmers must understand that that is the transaction type
referred to. It is not always easy to get the actual transaction
price and I must admit that collection of prices in markets is
a hard job. You cannot just go and ask the trader, because
often the price paid is subject to negotiation and the price the
trader quotes may not be the final price.  And if prices vary,
how does the collector arrive at a suitable "average" to
broadcast on the radio. These are important issues, too
complex to go into here, but market information services do
need to develop clear guidelines to give to their collectors.
Availability
5. For information to be available and timely it should
preferably reach farmers on the same day on which it is
collected, or early on the following morning. The means
efficient MIS operation is essential and the local media must
be willing to cooperate. Efficient MIS dissemination usually
involves price collection early in the day, rapid completion
of price-collection forms and speedy distribution to the
relevant media. For crops that change price rapidly, such as
vegetables, prices should ideally be collected and disseminated
on a daily basis. Indonesia is one good example of this, but I
am sure there are others. Where faxes exist phones should
not be used as there is a risk of prices   being misheard. Where
e-mail exists this should normally be used in preference to
faxes, to avoid the need for data to be entered on computer
twice, once in the provinces and once in HQ. In some
circumstances, however, it may be quicker for a data collector
to write prices on a price collection form and then fax this to
the local radio station and HQ, rather than going to the trouble
of first entering the information on a computer.