COMESA's expensive new agricultural website

Cellphone technology has revolutionized life in many parts of Africa. This has proven to be a particularly "appropriate technology" where the high infrastructure costs of fixed networks meant that the vast majority of Africans stood no chance of getting a fixed phone. African Agriculture has carried a number of stories about how African entrepreneurs are experimenting with going beyond using the cellphone as a means of private communication, to trying to deliver business information and services through it.

The Internet has as yet tiny access in Africa, but it too promises to be a relatively accessible and cost-effective technology that will make many new things possible in Africa. The mere existence of this website is an example. The Internet has made it possible with relatively little start-up capital, infrastructure or staff, to have a medium of communicating African agricultural news with the whole world.

Given the perennial complaints about lack of funding for business or developmental activities, it is somewhat surprising that the Internet has not been more widely embraced in Africa as a marketing, research and communication tool even in the limited areas where the infrastructure for it exists. This is slowly changing as awareness of the cost-effectiveness, the reach and power of the Internet grows amongst governments as well as private businesses.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has developed a website aimed at improving agricultural marketing and trade in the 20-member countries. The website, called the Food and Agricultural Marketing Information System, is being funded by the African Development Bank at $8m.

Thomas Barasa, the agricultural and marketing expert at COMESA, said the three-year project would enhance decision-making by all stakeholders. "One of the major factors bogging down trade in the region is lack of market information in regard to commodity demand and supply, prices, consumer needs as well as regulation and rules that govern regional and international trade in agricultural commodities. There is need to provide this information so that stakeholders can use it to formulate policies and appropriate decision-making."

One hopes that the $8 million cost is to set up the associated infrastructure for the whole idea, rather than for just the website as implied by the newspaper. The idea of the service is a good one and there are growing reports of similar pricing/commodity exchange initiatives from all over the continent, made possible by the growing access to cellphones and the Internet.

As good of an idea as it is, it remains to be seen whether an organization like COMESA can provide this necessary service as efficiently and sustainably as the private sector initiatives that are springing up.

Chido Makunike