Enhancing smallholder market participation through mobile phone-enabled services: The case of M-farm in Kenya

Abstract

Many farmers in the developing world have limited access to agricultural technologies and markets. Mobile phone-enabled services that offer price information and market linkages could contribute towards bridging this gap by reducing uncertainty about expected profits, information asymmetries and market inefficiencies. This article uses the example of the price information and marketing service M-Farm in Kenya to empirically test this potential. Findings from a survey of M-Farm users confirm that m-services offering price information can help farmers plan production processes better, but also show that alternative channels, in particular the radio, can also be effective especially at the early stages of production. While evidence on the utility of the information to help farmers obtain better prices is inconclusive, resulting changes in cropping patterns and harvesting times are likely to have contributed to perceived income gains. M-Farm appears to have had limited impact on broadening market linkages, in part due to the company's focus on facilitating single contracts between farmers and buyers rather than establishing a mobile phone-enabled network of buyers.