This is Part Three of a series brought to us by Mark Davies - market information obsessed anthropologist & technologist (and incidentally the founder/CEO of Esoko)
Aside from the conversation about what MIS can do and about where content comes (or doesn't come) from, there are actually a lot of interesting new technologies emerging and being used in Africa. It's fascinating to see considering how void the space was just one decade ago.
These technologies have the capability to transform how agriculture is managed. And in the end it will be a win-win for everyone involved since agriculture is so stupendously expensive and inefficient. Africa is importing billions of dollars of food every year. Few grades and standards, lack of inputs, and little visibility and information flow across the supply chain come together to create the situation as we know it. And because of it companies are scared to invest; they're even scared to source locally. New technologies can make agricultural smarter, leaner, and more efficient. They can also empower everyone to act more like a decision-maker based on choice and options than a passive producer in the field.
Again, I would argue that most of the current confusion about if Market Information Systems can 'work' arise because we’re in a transitional phase. Just as commercial space travel is now possible due to smarter and cheaper technologies, so too is market information now accessible and manageable through a new set of tools. This is not only the mobile phone, but also a growing and maturing penetration of networked people and places throughout rural communities--cybercafés, GPRS phones, and radio all have a key role in reducing the cost of disseminating this type of information. It's also the emergence of a new class of technologists across Africa, either local or imported, that bridge more developed software communities with the emerging ones and are able to launch increasingly relevant, usable and appropriate solutions. M-Farm, Muddy Boots, FrontlineSMS, Ushahidi, SourceTrace, txteagle, CKW, Logistimo, EpiCollect, Helveta, Indaba, e-Choupal, RapidSMS, and Dimagi to name a few. It’s an impressive list and is beginning to look like an industry of market discovery serving all types of customers across the sector. And it's just that...the beginning.
