Application of Amis for Improved Access to Agricultural Market Information :case Study Machakos County.

Abstract

The importance of ICTs in agriculture have been well recognized in numerous publications and policy documents. The adoption and access to Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) by smallholder farmers is a critical way of facilitating rural growth across the country. However, limited resources, inadequate access to and application of ICT innovations in extension service delivery in Kenya has greatly impacted effective dissemination of Agricultural Market information to Farmers within Machakos County. The Main objective of this research was to develop an integrated market information system that enhances usability of AMIS and improves access to information by smallholder farmers in Machakos County. The study was done on 124 pigeon pea and green-gram farmers from Yatta sub-county within Machakos County, Kenya. The data was collected using a pre-tested questionnaire and analyzed with Microsoft Power BI. About 91.94% of the respondents owned a phone and only 38.71% had a smartphone. 64.52% of all respondents face various constraints in internet access such as lack of knowledge on how to use internet and high cost of data bundles. Despite the constraints, 35.48% of the respondents had access to internet access. It was noted 92.74% of all respondents preferred a Swahili based AMIS because of its ease of use. A web and mobile based application with SMS module available in both English and Swahili language was developed for access to market information, weather and agronomic advisories. Agile Software Development (ASD) method was used supported by the collected data to inform system and modules design. All the test users indicated that the application was simple and easy to use yet very informative and a key milestone towards improving AMIS usability and adoption.