Principle 5: Enable access to markets
Farmers need to be able to get their products to market and receive equitable price treatment.
• Provide remote access to up-to-date market pricing information
• Develop well functioning markets through transparent information, fair prices, sound infrastructure and reduced speculation
• Encourage co-operative approaches to marketing for smallholders
• Improve smallholder farmers' marketing skills through entrepreneurship training
• Reduce market distortions to improve opportunities for all strata of agriculture worldwide
Case-studies
Dial “A” for agricultural markets (Africa)
The West Africa Agric Trade Network provides information on the latest available prices from selected agricultural markets, buy and sell, news, contacts and other information required for commercial decision-making in all 15 member countries of the Economic Community of West African States. Farmers can receive all this information via text message on their mobile phones. The Trade in Hand project provides daily price information for fruit and vegetable exports in Burkina Faso and Mali, while Manobi, a Senegalese telecom company, provides agricultural and fish price updates to subscribers. Safaricom, the Kenyan mobile phone operator, provides a text message service for farmers to access updates on commodities in markets direct from the Kenya agricultural commodity exchange. Traders can offer their goods for sale or place bids, as well as post short messages or questions on agricultural matters. Rural-based market information points help to extend the service to those farmers with limited access to mobile phones or computers.
Empowering cooperatives
TradeNet, a Ghana-based trading platform allows users to sign up for SMS alerts for commodities and markets of their choice and receive instant alerts for offers to buy or sell as soon as anyone else on the network has submitted an offer on their mobile phone. Users can also request and receive real-time prices for more than 80 commodities from 400 markets across West Africa. Individual users can advertise their goods and offers on free Web sites with their own Internet addresses, and farmer and trader groups can set up Web sites to manage all these services for their members. The Ghana Agricultural Producers and Traders Organization is a major beneficiary. In 2006 it concluded trade deals worth $60,000 with other producer and trader organizations in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Nigeria. These deals involved purchasing tomatoes, onions, and potatoes without middlemen, reducing the transaction costs substantially.
E-choupal
To overcome low literacy rates and limited connectivity, some projects provide “mediated access” through kiosks. For instance, through its e-Choupal kiosks, agri-exporter ITC Limited in India is independent small farmers. Village internet kiosks managed by farmers themselves, enable the agricultural community access to information in their local language on the weather & market prices, disseminate knowledge on scientific farm practices and risk management, facilitate the sale of farm inputs and purchase farm produce from the farmers’ doorsteps. Launched in June 2000, 'e-Choupal' services today reach out to more than 4 million farmers growing a range of crops in over 40,000 villages through 6450 kiosks across 8 states.
www.echoupal.com
Using supply chain partnerships to support agriculture in Africa
Unilever has been an active proponent of schemes to broaden the supply-base and support local livelihoods, particularly in its tea and palm-oil estates. Lipton/Unilever Tea has a partnership with Rainforest Alliance on sustainability certification. A partnership with Tanzania Forest Conservation Group, Ministry of Natural Resources, World Agroforestry Centre and the World Conservation Union also promotes Allanblackia seed production for fat/oil, as a substitute for palm oil in spreads, soap and as an alternative source of farmer income. Farmers, transporters and crushers benefit, and the value of Allanblackia trees encourages farmers to reverse deforestation (see www.unilever.com/sustainability/casestudies/agriculture/ ).
