Evaluation of Farmers Market Information System to Connect with Some Social Stakeholders

抄録

A large part of the population in Tanzania consists of rural smallholder farmers. Due to lack of market information, farmers sell crops to middlemen at lower prices and hence don't get enough profits. Previously we developed a WEB and SMS (Short Message Service) based Farmers Market Information System using a Waterfall model which automatically replies to farmers' requests for market prices of crops through SMS. We then improved the system so that, farmers can access crop buyers' details and crop demand reports through SMS while crop buyers can access farmers' details and crop demand reports through SMS or WEB. We also evaluated the effectiveness of the system to crop buyers' incomes and times for accessing market information after implementing the system in Tanzania in the SWAHILI language. In this paper we further evaluate the system effectiveness. Findings reveal that the system helped farmers to get improved incomes and access market information in shorter times. The system also helped farmers and crop buyers to sell and buy larger quantities of crops respectively. The findings also reveal that young people can learn and use the system more easily than old people. Users can also easily learn and use the system if they can read and write in the SWAHILI language regardless of their education levels.