The Farmers Market Information System (FMIS) will include a text message information service for farmers in Ethiopia’s Oromia province. The Farmers Market Information System will function as a database with a mobile component, giving its users all the information they seek, in different user interfaces, adjusted to their needs. Through the FMIS, the farmers will be able to receive information on market prices for their products, the weather forecast, or availability of fertilisers with a simple text message. In addition to this, they will be provided with solar mobile chargers to facilitate them, as at the moment, every time they need to charge their phones, they are forced to visit the nearest village on a market day and pay an amount of money to have it charged.
Field visits in local farmers market organisations, indicated that more than 50% of the farmers in the Oromia Region make use of mobile phones and value this use in their daily life.
Farmers market organisations and unions will use the Farmers Market Information System to aggregate data from individual farmers about what and how many products they grow. With these data, they will be able to analyse and monitor the production of agricultural goods in their area.
The Farmers Information System will also be used by traders and suppliers of cultivation products to retrieve information on which products are being cultivated and provide the farmers with the necessary market information or products such as fertilisers suitable to their crop.
In the first phase, the Farmers Market Information System will be used by 16500 farmers in the Oromia Region, with the possibility to upscale it to other provinces. The system will be developed by the Ethiopian mobile technology company Apposit LLC with the support of IICD and fellow Connect4change members, ICCO and Texttochange, as well as with the support of 1Zero.
Region: Ethiopia, Oromia Region
Bron: IICD