Assessing The Quality Of Agricultural Market Information Systems A Self Assessment Guide

Over approximately the past 40 years, many developing countries invested in the establishment of agricultural market information systems or services (MIS). These systems or services were initially run by government agencies, but since the turn of the millennium private organizations have shown interest in providing data on a commercial basis. To date, however, these private services, while usually being more efficient than the government-run ones, have also largely depended on donor support for their continued operation. It has proved difficult to develop a profitable business model as many of the clients are small farmers and traders. Agricultural market information systems or services (MIS) can cover staples, horticultural crops, livestock, and export commodities. They are generally designed to collect, process, and disseminate or distribute data of relevance to farmers, traders and other buyers, such as processors, but the data they generate can also be used for a variety of purposes by governments, donors, international organizations and others.

The Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA) Guidelines were developed for assessing the impact of food and agriculture operations on the environment and people. The guiding vision of SAFA is that food and agriculture systems worldwide are characterized by all four dimensions of sustainability: good governance, environmental integrity, economic resilience and social well-being.

Aimed particularly at economists working on problems of markets and marketing policy against a background of recent policy shifts towards liberalization in the agricultural and food sectors. Relevant to those providing advice to governments, aid agencies and non-government organizations on market policy reform.

Introduction; When to conduct farmer evaluations in agricultural research; The social dynamics of farmer evaluations in developing countries; Establishing a collegiate working relationship with farmers; Communication skills for conducting evaluations; Farmer selection; Setting up farmer evaluations; The evaluation interview; Group evaluations; Ten guidelines for effective evaluations of technology with farmers.