In world where trade, industry and commerce is being increasingly governed by competitiveness, farmers need to be able to easily access information relating to commodity prices, demand and supply etc.

The days have long gone when farmers simply produced commodities and sold them at what they consider reasonable prices as the marketing world has become a much more complex and sophisticated one.

Renos Vakis, Elisabeth Sadoulet and Alain de Janvry in their paper: “Transactions costs and the role of bargaining and information: evidence from Peru”, states, “Besides access to road infrastructure, a number of other transactions related attributes are found to influence farmers’ market decision. In particular, access to price information is found to be equivalent to a 23 percent reduction in transportation costs. In addition, more than half of the variation observed in prices received in some markets can be attributed to bargaining. These results are an empirical example of the importance of transaction costs besides transport in marketing decisions and market integration. As such, they suggest that policies aiming to reduce transaction costs should address not only road and infrastructure but also create mechanisms that improve bargaining and enhance information bows.”

And so the recent launch of the Agriculture Marketing Information Service (AMIS) through a partnership between the New Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) and Digicel is indeed a wonderful initiative and would be of tremendous help to farmers and consumers as well.

Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud lauded the Digicel/GMC partnership in devising AMIS, and stressed that the application of information technology and cellular service has played a pivotal role in generating growth and development in several Latin America and Asian countries.

Persaud said Guyana is learning from lessons of these innovations as it looks to accelerate and advance development, not only in the agriculture sector, but in the country as a whole. He underscored that the ready availability of information will greatly assist farmers and exporters both local and overseas in making critical decisions in price negotiations.

The minister correctly noted too that the innovation ties into a similar initiative in the Information Communication Technologies (ICT) Strategy, and will significantly aid farmers under the Agriculture Diversification Project and the Rural Enterprise Agricultural Development (READ) programme.

The initiative is also an encouraging one from the standpoint of being a collaborative venture with the private sector which is crucial to economic development and the sentiments expressed by Digicel’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Gregory Deen.

The CEO said, his company is pleased to be part of the undertaking, and indicated his support in the public education exercises, declaring that Digicel is delighted to bring a new service to farmers and ultimately, a new service on the market.

This is indeed reassuring and provides great optimism for continued and closer collaboration with the corporate sector.

It is expected that farmers would make optimal use of this service as they continue to make a sterling contribution to the agriculture sector and the national economy.