Agricultural market information in developing countries: A literature review

In most developing countries, the agricultural industry has the potential to alleviate poverty at a faster rate compared to other sectors. As such, many governments have initiated policies and programme to improve agricultural performance. However, some of these projects have not achieved success because the local agricultural markets are often controlled by a small group of stakeholders who tend to hide information in the market despite having huge market power. This paper aimed to determine the issues and impacts of the lack of market information in developing countries and to provide strategies for solving such problems. Results show that the presence of an oligopsonic market system, current information and communication technology (ICTs), the lack of market infrastructure and gender limitations are the main issues related to a lack of information. In turn, lack of information leads to an inefficient agricultural market, causes negative impacts on market participants, and ultimately leads to harmful socio-economic effects. Thus, to solve these problems, it is necessary to improve capacity building, increase access to ICTs and improve market infrastructure.