SMS puts knowledge in the palm of a farmer’s hand

Knowledge is power, and vegetable growers in the Arusha region of Tanzania just got a little stronger with the launch of VegOneX, an SMS/radio vegetable price information service developed by AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center.

Competitive market systems require sellers and buyers to be well informed about supply, demand and prices. Price collusion and other exploitative practices can occur when markets lack transparency and one party has more or better information than the others. In sub-Saharan Africa, farmers often experience difficulty obtaining accurate information from traders and wholesalers. Without up-to-date details about market fluctuations, farmers may end up selling their produce at lower prices.

Members of the VegOneX team: Bringing much-needed market information to Arusha farmers.

Prices are determined by vegetable supply and demand; they fluctuate because the crops are perishable. Vegetable farmers are vulnerable due to the volatility of fresh produce prices.

VegOneX aims to help rectify that situation by ensuring vegetable farmers have the necessary information to make good crop management decisions and to obtain fair prices for their crops. “We collect information on standard transaction costs, such as market entry fees, transport, labeling, loading and off-loading, as well as daily vegetable prices from Arusha’s vegetable retail and wholesale markets,” said Agricultural Economist Srinivasulu Rajendran, who created VegOneX with Socioeconomist Victor Afari-Sefa and IT Manager Bharath Krishnan, supported by funding from the Center’s Innovation Fund.

Research Associate Eliaza Mkuna compiles the raw data on alternate days, after which it is condensed, aggregated, statistically tested, and disseminated to farmers via SMS. The SMS service is prepared every week by Farm Radio International (FRI). Local radio station Radio 5 broadcasts voice messages with the price information to thousands of listeners.

Farmers in Arusha use their mobile phones to send an SMS text message of a vegetable crop name (in Swahili) to a local number (+255-789212140). The sender will receive the latest weekly wholesale and retail price for that particular crop. For instance, by texting Nyanya, farmers will receive price information about tomato from wholesalers and retailers at Arusha’s Kilombero Market. More than 100 farmers are now using the service.

“Although our Field Investigators Zablon Ernest and Fides Nsingi collect daily price data, we present it on a weekly basis,” said Srinivasulu. The data is collected from 8 to 10 wholesale and retail traders who are willing to share information; by aggregating the data weekly, price information is evened out so that farmers can make decisions with less risk.

Efficient market information has positive benefits for farmers, traders and consumers. Policy makers can also benefit by using the information for forecasting, planning, and policy formulation.

Farmers will soon be able to receive voice messages at the same mobile phone number to obtain additional information about price trends and figures on marketing and transaction costs. Farmers will also be able to contact traders that might be interested in buying what they have to sell. Consumers can use the service as well, to learn about differences in wholesale and retail prices for vegetables, and to get a better idea of approximate vegetable retail prices.