Providing marketing information to smallholders in Zimbabwe: What can the state usefully do?

In recent decades, significant international assistance has been provided to assist theestablishment of market information systems (MISs) in a range of developing countries,including many in Africa. However, experience with state-run MISs, looking to providecurrent price information to market participants, has not been encouraging. Volatilehorticultural markets provide particular challenges for such MISs. Therefore, it is suggestedthat it might be more appropriate to provide other types of marketing information to informthe production and marketing decisions of smallholder producers. This paper reports onrecent efforts by the national extension agency, Agritex, to provide such information tosmallholder horticultural producers in two districts of north-eastern Zimbabwe. Drawing onan initial evaluation of this pilot programme, the paper suggests that: 1) in the Zimbabwecase, the extension service may provide a viable vehicle for dissemination of marketinginformation to smallholder (horticultural) producers; 2) information on new crops andmarket opportunities is valued more highly by farmers than information on current marketprices; 3) such information should complement, not supplant, traditional productionextension advice. The paper concludes by considering some of the issues pertaining to thecontinuation and expansion of the pilot programme.