Market Price Information System Using Web and National Television - Burkina Faso

Accessing market price information is not easy for farmers in Burkina Faso. To solve this, early 2005, the Institut Africain de Bio-Economie Rurale (IABER), with financial support from IICD, initiated a project to provide information on agricultural markets through a television programme entitled TV Koodo, which is linked to the IABER website (www.iaber.bf). The show provides viewers of Burkina Faso’s national television channel with monthly information about market prices for livestock and grain. It also informs people about the trials and tribulations of agricultural life in an entertaining way by using puppets, with guests invited to participate in the broadcasts. The show has over one million viewers.

IABER has a lot of experience in collecting market price information. It developed this project to find out how great an impact it could have if it were to disseminate the information via national television. The project is active in two areas:

• It has set up a market price system linked to a database and website to inform buyers and sellers of agricultural products on market prices;
• It broadcasts monthly television programmes called ‘TV Koodo’  on market prices. The programmes also contain general information on price development, how to market agricultural products, and other relevant information for producers and traders. So far, 13 television shows have been aired.

TV-Koodo Agro-Business (version longue) - part 2 from Francois Laureys on Vimeo.

Read more about IICD's Burkina Faso Country Programme.

From the start of the project until October 2008, 18 TV Koodo episodes have been aired. A monitoring & evaluation report of 2007 states that:

• Almost 65% of the persons interviewed estimates that because of the project, they get better prices for their products.
• 85% feels that they now know better what price they can ask for their products.

Mid 2007 the network of agricultural projects supported by IICD (TIC-Agriculture) made a TV Koodo episode on the importance of ICT for the agricultural sector in Burkina Faso. The benefits of ICT were explained in a very simple way, so many people could understand it. It also explained how ICT can be useful for illiterate farmers. This particular episode was broadcast five times on national television, yielding hundreds of reactions from other interested farmer related organisations and individuals.

The project team has worked on a new format for the 3-minute TV-Koodo shows, and the first ones have been broadcasted in January 2008. The challenge for IABER will now be to uphold the quality of the weekly provided market prices.

TV Koodo - Les Systèmes d'Informations Agricoles from Francois Laureys on Vimeo.

The overall objective of the project is to disseminate price information on agricultural products, especially cereals, oil products and animals, on a national scale through television and a specially designed website.

Specific objectives are:

• Producing content - To produce and disseminate television programs on agricultural (price) information.
• Online Price Information - To provide online agricultural price information.
• Build Capacity - To develop the capacities of the Institut Africain de Bio-Economie Rurale (IABER), the project owner.
• Set up a database - To set up agricultural databases for research and decision making.

TV Koodo specifically targets farmers and others involved in the agricultural and livestock marketplace. On the specially designed TV Koodo website, they can look up  the market prices (for instance, on cattle and cereals) that were mentioned in the show.

Through the price information disseminated by TV Koodo and on the market boards, farmers will have increased access to the market price of their crops which will enable them, in turn, to sell their crops at higher prices, resulting in higher income.

Although farmers are the target audience for TV Koodo, the television programme also appeals to a broader audience: the general public, including policymakers and donors, also find the show informative and entertaining.

Read more about IICD's approach towards Livelihoods.

An evaluation of the project at the beginning of 2006 revealed two major flaws:

• ‘TV Koodo’ is so popular that the TV station often shows repeats. However, this meant that the market price information in these shows was out-of-date or erratic.
• Farmers experienced difficulties in finding the market price information on the website.

The project team has now addressed these problems: the market price information is no longer part of the main TV show but is broadcasted separately, and the website has now been adapted to make it easier to access the market price information.

The evaluation of the project in 2007 revealed that due to internet connectivity problems, many farmers find it still difficult to access price information through the internet.

In the focus group meeting in December 2007, the project team discussed this issue. Considering that mobile phones are getting cheaper and are easier in use than a computer, they proposed to install on each market a mobile phone booth, so farmers can collect prices of neighboring markets on the market itself, at any moment.

Project owner is the Institut Africain de Bio-Economie Rurale (IABER). Sustainability and continuity of the project may be difficult, as the organisation is small and is also taking up other, larger projects.