Agriculture Market Information Service launched

Jul 03, 2009 News

Farmers and consumers countrywide can access real time market prices with the establishment of the Agriculture Market Information Service.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with Digicel and the New Guyana Marketing Corporation launched the new service, which allows consumers and farmers to receive text messages with the prices of agricultural commodities.
The system allows persons to text the name of the commodity, for which they want to have the price, and send it to 1010.
Within seconds they will automatically receive a SMS with the average price for the product at the Bourda and Stabroek markets along with the prices for the same commodity in Trinidad and Barbados.
Weather reports can also be obtained using the service.
Speaking at the launching ceremony at Digicel Head Office, Head of the New Guyana Marketing Corporation, Nizam Hassan, said that the service will be expanded overtime.
He pointed out that the Agriculture Market Information Service represents information systems in gathering, analyzing and disseminating information about prices and other information relevant to farmers and other agriculture business persons.
This system, he said, plays an important role in agro industrialization and food supply chains.
At present, the service is only available to Digicel consumers.
According to Hassan, within the New GMC, a system has been established to have officers examine the market prices and update the system daily.
Each test will cost $5, however further discussions are ongoing with the telephone company for a further reduction in the cost per SMS.
Chief Executive Officer of Digicel, Gregory Dean, told the gathering which included farmers, that the launch is just Phase One of a wider project.
He noted that other areas are being examined to explore the possibility of having persons subscribe to services where alerts will be sent on specific issues.
A massive public relations campaign will be launched in ensuring that persons know how to use the service.
Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, said that the use of the SMS system to get pricing information is very critical.
He said that this is an effort to improve marketing.
“One of the weak areas in the agricultural sector is marketing support,” Minister Persaud said, noting that emphasis is being placed on building the marketing capacity and support of the sector.
This initiative fits into that frame of being in a position to better serve those who are producing, exporting and even processing, the Minister said. The Ministry of Agriculture will be distributing 150 handsets to farmers in specific areas to access this service.
Several advertisements will be placed in the newspaper to highlight the spelling of commodities that can be priced via the service.

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Agriculture Market Information Service launched

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