The responsibilities of the state were transferred to producer organisations’ (POs) without any transfer of means following the disengagement of the state. The ANOPACI then defined its priorities in order to offer services to its members. The commercialization of producers was identified as the main problem of the producers due to lack of market information.
The market information system (MIS) was then put in place in 2002. It enables the collection and treatment of technical, economic (sales price) and commercial (price, volumes, and supply) information for four filières: pineapples-bananas, food crops, market gardening and vegetables and livestock production.
The information is then restituted in eight Village Information Points through information boards, the diffusion of a quarterly bulletin and through radio programmes which are dedicated to agriculture. Each VIP animator monitors four to five markets.
The information is treated on the spot and then transmitted to the coordination. It is also transmitted through the internet site Tradenet which enhances its circulation in the sub region.
The producers thus have more arms to negotiate and the suspicion between the buyers and sellers is reduced. Incomes increase and production is intensified. It is difficult to cover the zone and to finance the MIS in the long term but it is an agricultural information system which has succeeded to adapt to the needs of the producers and has become indispensable to them.
