A Virtual Market Platform(VMP); Integrating appropriate technology for Market Access!!

Henry & Radio Geek-Geofrey Pioneer by practically Building their AFI-VMP Platform.

Over the years AFI-VMP has undergone an evolutionary process from just an idea to a knowledge and skills based institution still in progress. Here we believe humanity is our business. Because 85% of Ugandans are rural based and subsistence farmers,they are poor. AFI is building on the charisma of its innovators to leverage the power of smallholder farmers through adoption of appropriate technologies linking farmers to markets.

Lack of financial resources to help smallholder farmers to bulk their commodities into reasonable volumes, improve quality, collective storage, packing and marketing hampers easier access to markets and competitive prices. By translation this is a key function of rural poverty among rural farmers. Smallholder farmer enteprise groups that are a key component in re-building the cooperative movement are critical in facilitating the reactivation of the Warehouse Receipt System(WRS) for collective storage, improving quality standards and collective marketing of grain such as maize, beans, rice at competitive prices. AFI-VMP will increase the momentum of adoption of the WRS in the country and help facilitate the emergency of village companies engaged in contract farming through techology adoption, market intelligence tracking and dissemination to rural farmers.

AFI-VMP in partnership with Rockford Harris Group and the INSPIRE Consortium has been engaged in farmer institutional development in Eastern & Central Uganda. These agribusiness programs have been geared towards improving farm productivity to avert food insecurity in addition to improving market access for surplus produce. Farmers face both structural and policy challenges that AFI believes can holisitically be addressed through partnerships and innovative approaches.
AFI-VMP is a rural based virtual platform integrating rural telecommunications & community radio technology to link smallholder farmer enterprises to local and regional markets through market intelligence broadcasts.VMP will be integrated with other initiatives gradually taking place in rural communities. AFI in partnership with Rockford Harris Group & AgriNet(U) are working to reactivate the Warehouse Reciept System(WRS) while working with Africa2000 Network on farmer institutional development under the INSPIRE consortium.

YOUTHS FORM THE CORE OF OUR COMMUNICATION STRATEGY.

Key challenges to agribusiness in rural farming communities is access to markets and information. A traditional lack of trust and awareness of a need for business linkages between value chain actors can be resolved through smallholder farmer group formation and capacity enhancement. This is already underway in areas where AFI has established contacts for the partnership. Enterprise groups have been identified and capacity building underway. Market Access Companies with a social enterprenuership concept are leveraging the power of markets to stimulate development.

What then is the value of AFI-VMP? What are the constituent components of AFI-VMP?

While policy, market, infrastructural challenges still hammper the extension of television and telecom services in rural communities, radio communication technology has proved to have a more rural percolation ability. Atleat each homestead has a radio unit through which information can be accessed. The liberalization of the airwaves has also facilitated the investment in FM Radio a sector that previously was the preserve of the state. A lot is taking shape in rural community therefore. But there are missing links. While commercial FM stations have come up their programming is monetary driven. Community development programs such as sustainable natural resources management which are relevant are given less priority. Farmers have no leverage to influence radio programming and investors are interested in what brings immediate returns-the focus on market forces.

AFI-VMP Project addresses a market information gap building a virtual market platform through which rural farmers can obtain commodity prices in the market. The object is to facilitate the capacity of a farmer to negotiate, participate in farmer group discussions, group formation, capacity enhancement programs so as to leverage bargaining power in the market place.

AFI-VMP COMPONENTS:

• Rural Market Information Centers(RMICs). These could rural telecenter points or kiosks manned by Enterprise Group Team Lead Resource Persons(TLPs) for posting information on bulletin boards.
• Short Messaging Systems(SMS) due to the emerging extension of the cellphone in rural areas. Telecom peneration of rural communities due to increased competition is pushing telecom services to untapped rural economies. Problem is content and this where AFI-VMP in building its innovation platform to develop content that is relevant to a smallholder farmer.A napshot of commodity prices will be conducted in a basket survey throughout the country on a double entry basis and this information will be synthesized and fed into our online system. A database of cellphone users in farming communities is under-construction and regular update especially for community resource persons and TLPs through market intelligence information will be broadcast in local languages. Uganda today has 5 operating telecos in a cut-throat competition which has translated into opportunities for rural farmers. What remains is how to appropriate that technology with appropriate development content.
• AFI-VMP Radio. This will be the key component of the platform because of its radius, breadth of information penetration and affordability of access by many farming families.The radio is expected to cover the whole of Eastern Uganda with a population of about 10million people. Eastern Uganda is engaged in grain production with a number odf value chains that lack efficiency to obtain maximum market opportunities. Commodity and value chains such as rice, maize, wheat, beans are critical for the warehouse reciept system. The community radio will run on a 50/50 program protocol where 50% of airtime will be community based development information broadcasting while 50% will be commercial for sustainability of the project. AFI-VMP has already procured low-cost radio equipment from China and installation & testing underway.
• Warehouse Reciept System(WRS). As farmers get organized into enteprise groups, the market is taking shape in rural Uganda. The collapse of the cooperative movement with the liberalization of the economy isolated smallholder farmers and took away the leverage that comes with resource pooling. The cooperative movement is currently getting reactivated through strategic partnerships between the private sector, civil society and government through policy reforms. AFI-VMP will link farmer enterprise groups to the emerging WRS infrastructure in the region and the country. AFI-VMP has developed contacts with the Uganda Commodities Exchange(UCE), a public institution that licences Warehouse operators & commodity brokers in the country. AFI-VMP has also developed contacts with Post Bank Uganda and other commercial banks that have warehouse reciepting products in the country for tracking information on commodity brokers. This market information will be compiled after verification for broadcasting on the community development program as well as dispatch to RMICs on a daily basis to smallholder farmers and intermediary commodity traders.Our partnerships are to leverage social impact and avoid duplication. AFI-VMP has existing partnerships through the INSPIRE Consortium. Each contituent partner has specialised strength either in community mobilization, technology adoption, soil science & cropping, local governance, finance and business development. AFI-VMP is strategically investing in a component that presents the weakest link in the partnership-Leveraging the bargaining power of a smallholder farmer through market information access using appropriate technology".