Agric value chain enhanced under ESOKO

Farmers now have access to adequate information

Access to market information for the Ghanaian agriculturist has in years past been a luxury.

As a result, farmers are often deprived of fully benefiting from their toil. They either dispose of their produce at cheaper prices and sometimes, their commodities don't even get to compete at the marketplace.

But the roll out of the ESOKO market information system in Ghana is changing the trend.

The ESOKO market info exchange focuses on agricultural marketing and provides current market data through the mobile phone and the internet to interest groups within the agriculture and trade sectors.

Through its network of enumerators in 31 markets in Ghana, ESOKO is able provide market prices on various agricultural commodities directly unto the mobile phones of farmers.

The TradeNet Company is also first to develop the agriculture commodity index in Ghana.

Managing Director of Esoko Ghana, Bernard Otabil tells Luv Fm in Kumasi the business of collating and disseminating market pricing information is helping to improve the agricultural value chain.

He says barely a year after deploying the business and social networking platform in Ghana, ESOKO is impacting positively farmer livelihood.

“We have a group of farmers in northern Ghana under a programme called SEND, where farmers who are using our platform have been able to increase their incomes by an average of 40 percent. Others have gone as far up as 123 percent.

We have set ourselves about to actually improve livelihoods and transform lives within the rural setting”, Mr. Otabil noted.

Story by: Kofi Adu Domfeh/Luv FM/Ghana