Farmers across Africa are using mobile SMS technology to access up to date market information for their crops. The innovative market service, created by a Ghanian company, Esoko, has enabled small holder farmers in Africa to negotiate better price deals for their crops and help with production planning.
Currently Esoko is active in eight African countries: Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Mozambique, Madagascar and Malawi.
For years agriculture has been described as the engine for growth across Africa. As agricultural businesses make a significant impact on the economic development of the continent, support for small holder farmers was absolutely needed.
The Esoko service consists of mobile updates for farmers and traders delivered by SMS that include market prices and buy/sell offers, bulk SMS functionality, websites for small businesses and associations, and SMS polling technology.
Esoko Malawi has a network of enumeration agents stationed in market centers across the country who feed data like prices, offers, and industry profiles. The network also includes associations, businesses, informal groups of traders, regional projects or any group of entity that wants to exchange market information like MicroLoan Foundation who will be equipping all of our loan officers with this service to better serve our clients.
Sixteen commodities are included in the index—maize(white, grain), beans(dolichos), (nanyati), (red), (mixed), (napilira), (ground), soya beans, pidgin peas, cow peas, groundnuts(chalimbana), (G7), (manipinta), rice(kilombero), (faya), and (pusa). Markets were selected based on their regional location and strategic importance, and they include Karonga, Jenda, Mzuzu, Lilongwe, Mitundi, Mchinji, Kasungu, Lizulu, Mangochi, Limbe, Mikando, Chikhwawa, and Zomba.
My project while in Malawi will include setting up MicroLoan on the Esoko Malawi network and provide and train our branch managers with this innovative technology.
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