IICD supported project: 2002 - Agri-Business Information System (ABIS)

Countries: Jamaica [JM]
Sectors: livelihood ebusiness

Summary

The Jamaican Agricultural Sector is being challenged by the changes heralding the New World Order in which technological advances are being used to propel the industry and new trading arrangements are being imposed under the banner of globalization. Lack of adequate communication between the producers and the buyers has resulted in inadequate planning and ultimately an unstable market environment. This has led to increased importation of commodities, which are also locally produced, lack of information on improved production practices and increased competition in the marketplaces. It is therefore necessary to link all the relevant participants in the system in order to achieve a more structured and co-ordinated Agricultural Sector. The need for ICT was identified as a crucial component in the strategy for the improvement of the production and marketing of agricultural commodities and domestic food products in particular. The small farmers in Jamaica are being forced to identify more with the needs of the marketplace and improve their quality and productivity in order to compete especially on the local market but also in the export markets.

Update

Updated: 2005-02-09

April, 2002<br />
The project is implementing an extension project of the pilot project,
resulting in an Agriculture Information System implemented at Head
Quarters of the Ministry of Agriculture with field implementation in
the parish of Manchester. The project has produced the following
results: 1) Collection of information by field officers on producers
and buyers (registry), production and marketing in the field with
support of hand held computers <br />
2) Development of a database updated by field officers on a 2-weekly
basis <br />
3) Development of RADA’s Intranet, accessible on parish offices <br />
4) Development of a set of automatically generated reports for specific
target groups (producers, buyers, policy makers) presented on RADA’s
Intranet <br />
5) Publication of selected information on RADA’s website <br />
6) Strategic information on E-business aspects is provided through the
partnership with Cap Gemini Ernst &amp; Young. <br />
The project has gained full attention of the Ministry of Agriculture
and is expected to become a major tool in improving the production and
marketing for both small farmers and operators in Jamaica. As a result,
a programme is in preparation including a roll-out of the project is
currently prepared for 5 parishes in Jamaica, with financial support of
the Ministry of Agriculture and the European Union. IICD will have a
role in project advice, monitoring and evaluation. In addition, an
agreement is signed with Jampro's Trade Point programme, which will
serve as an electronic trade system linking Jamaica to the world
market. Finally, an extensive training programme for operators of the
system is in development.

Objectives

The project aims to develop and implement an Information System that provides farmers better access to useful, timely and accurate agricultural information. The primary beneficiaries of the information system are at least 50,000 small farmers.

Planned outputs

The project will start with the development of a limited number of services including market and production information, registry services and technical guides. The project foresees in the provision of information on the most important commodities. A focus is set on provision of information on domestic food crops. The selection of services is based on an extensive needs assessment among small farmers.

The information services will be provided in two formats: printed agricultural information in text, numerical tables and graphics/images format available from RADA's offices and Web-based agricultural information in text, numerical tables and graphics available from RADA's Intranet and ultimately Internet Server.

The ICT employed covers a local database application operating over local area networks (LANs); a client-server database application operating over a wide area network (WAN), centrally serving direct and indirect users at all RADA sites and a Internet Server-Client application operating over the Web.

Development Impacts

The primary development objective is to increase the efficiency of Jamaica's agricultural production and the competitiveness of agricultural products within the context of national and global agricultural markets through the provision of appropriate information. In detail the project will contribute to an increased articulation between the players in the sector, leading to the reduction in wide agricultural surplus/shortage fluctuations; the growth in agricultural output; a better utilization of resources at the micro and macro level; an increase in profitability and a general modernization of agricultural management On the longer term, it is expected that ABIS becomes a nation-wide information system. It is expected that the system will become an example for other developing countries, which can be replicated to other countries.

Market and finance

The success of the project will be measured by the number of users using the services and the number of information services provided. Taking into account the limited purchasing power the small farmers will not pay as individuals for the services but will be served through their representing producer and trader associations. In order to develop a financially self-sustaining project, other potential user groups will benefit from the information system including medium and large producers, agro-business processors, wholesalers, importers and exporters, agriculture associations, research and policy makers.

50,000 direct users, including medium and large producers, larger traders and 150,000 indirect users that benefit from the information services, including small producers, which are are served through their representing associations.

The total expected number of paying users is to grow to 50,000 in the 5th year of the project. These users of information services are paying a price that is to recover the costs of information gathering, elaboration and dissemination. A fixed and uniformed price structure is applied to information packages developed for the different user groups.

Revenues generated from the sales of service packages will grow from US$ 8,000 in year 1 to US$ 533,000 in year 5. Investment in equipment and system development is US$ 97,000 in year 1 and US$ 159,000 in year 2. To cover the investment and operational costs, the finance requirement represents in total US$ 587,000. As from year 4, the project is expected to become fully self-sustaining, including a provision for depreciation of investments. To cover the finance requirements, RADA will finance an amount of US$ 363,000 spread over the years 1 to 3. External grant funding is sought to an amount of US$ 224,000 complete the finance requirements for year 1 and 2.

Budget

Project finance (in USD '000 where applicable):

Financial Rate of Return: n.a

Project Life: 5 years

Break-Even: 4 years

Net Profit (Loss):							Financing Plan:	X
X	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5	Capital Cost	Owner/Operator own contribution (year 1-3)	363
Revenues	8	210	343	525	533	X	External Funds (year 1-2)	224
Operating Costs	200	314	365	424	449	X	X	X
Depreciation	1	19	35	52	52	X	X	X
Profit (Loss)	(193)	(123)	(57)	49	32	X	Total	587
Working Capital Requirements							Investment Opportunity:	224

Project Owner : Rural Agriculture Development Authority

Project Partners : NCST
IICD

Contact Organisation : Rural Agricultural Development Authority

Project Contact : Mr. A. Shand