There are now quite a number of experimental designs and RCTs (randomized controlled trials) of market information systems measuring revenue gained by rural agriculturalists (farmers, fishermen) and traders. While some show improvements to the prices farmers get for their crops, others disappointingly show a lack of impact. There are also Read more…
A warm welcome to visitors who’ve found their way to this page from the Catholic Relief Services ICT4D conference. To know more about the objectives of this 5+ year research project visit our about page. If you are involved in an ICT4D project in the domain of agricultural, markets, and Read more…
Reposting this entry from The Connectivity, Inclusion, and Inequality Group blog at the Oxford Internet Institute. (see the original post here and download the full report on connectivity and the tea sector in Rwanda) by Chris Foster Market information systems are growing in popularity as an intervention by governments, NGOs Read more…
This month Janaki Srinivasan presented at the ICTD conference on her project revisiting the site of a canonical study on mobile phone use by fishermen in north Kerala. The original study (by economist Rob Jensen) showed compelling evidence that fishermen used mobile phones to check prices at different beach landing Read more…
Our first comparative case bringing together findings from fieldwork (by Jenna Burrell and Elisa Oreglia) among rural farmers in Hebei and Shandong provinces in China and fishermen and fish traders at Lake Victoria and Lake Kyoga in Uganda. The working paper is titled “The Myth of Market Price Information: Mobile Read more…
Note: Three members of our team (Ishita Ghosh, Jenna Burrell, and Janaki Srinivasan) attended the IMTFI conference Dec 5th-7th at UC-Irvine as recipients of IMTFI research grants. This year’s annual conference at the Institute of Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion (IMTFI) showcased projects from around the world. While attending the conference, Read more…
Mobile market information systems for farmers: demand- or offer-driven? Market information systems (MIS) have become a very hot topic in development circles, with a wealth of private and public initiatives to bring market prices to farmers in developing regions via mobile phones. I am very intrigued and very curious about Read more…