1. E-SOKO – The Agricultural Market Price information system
Bringing the market to Rwandans
RWANDA DEVELOPMENT BOARD
eRWANDA PROJECT
Ministry Of Agriculture and Animal Resources

2. Contents What is the eSoko Project? How does the eSoko system work?
How Is the eSoko System Used?
Who is the Systems target Group?
What are eSoko systems Potential Benefits?
What is the Current status of the eSoko System?
What is the Future of eSoko System?

3. What is the eSoko Project?
Previously MINAGRI used its Planning and Statistics Unit that collected market prices from 33 markets distributed all over the country twice a month. This information was then faxed to MINAGRI, who processed, validated and analyzed the data.
A table by market, province, and district was then generated and distributed to different users via or courier or wall postings at market centres.

4. Challenges of the paper system?
The paper based system resulted in distribution of mainly outdated information.
A tedious process from data collection, aggregation, analysis to distribution
Costly data transmission and dissemination process
Limited access to the information by the key target group
A collaborative effort between MINAGRI and RDB-eRwanda project to utilize the power of technology to increase faster access to real time agricultural commodity market price information.

5. How does the eSoko system work?
HOSTED APPLICATION
WEB
SMS
J2ME/GPS
Approve/Reject Agent Submissions
Submit Market Prices
Publish Reports
Submit GPS Location
Non-response follow-up
MARKET AGENT
MARKET COORDINATOR
IVR
SMS
WEB
Request Price Information
SMS to Agents
Timeliness Notifications
AGRI-USER/ PUBLIC 5

6. How Is the eSoko System Used?
COVERAGE
50 Market Covered (i.e. 6-Kigali, 11-Western Province, 11 -Eastern Province, 8-Northern Province and 14-Southern Province)
A total of 27 major agriculture commodities are surveyed
Agents collect and submit market prince information on a weekly basis
Public and Farmers’ Access guide
Access via SMS channel
Type the following SMS string “Igiciro[Space]izina ry’isoko[space]izina ry’igicuruzwa”
Send to shortcode – 7656
Farmer/Trader/Public will get an instant response with the latest price per unit of the commodity
Web Access
Through the URL , one can access the latest commodity prices in all markets as well as weekly and monthly reports regarding commodities available.

7. Who is the Systems target Group?
Local Farmer (All citizens)
Mobile Application
SMS
IVR
Web Application
Price trends
Traders
Local
SMS
IVR
International
Web access

8. What are eSoko systems Potential Benefits?
Increased access to near real time market price information will:
Reduce costs of communication and to stabilize the prices of the basic foodstuffs
Sensitize producers to invest more in products with larger profit margins
Facilitate access to the foodstuffs by the populations at a fair price
Contribute to maintaining prices at reasonable levels by encouraging a greater competition
Enable farmers decide, for example, if it is more lucrative to continue producing the crop or invest in the production of new species or decide on the right season to produce and sell at higher prices
Facilitate MINAGRI’s food security planning and monitoring program
Provide planning statistics needed by Government for planning purpose

9. SAMPLE REPORTS GENERATED FROM THE ESOKO SYSTEM: Price Trends for selected Commodities

10. RICE-RW

11. BANANA

12. BEANS

13. What is the Current status of the eSoko System?
Total current SMS traffic is 25,186
Total Guests visited the system is 4043

14. What is the Future of eSoko System?
In order to complement the development of a broader agricultural system for MINAGRI, eSOKO Phase II will;
Focus on creating eSoko as a market place or trading point for agricultural commodities
Enhancement of SMS Interface to support Multilingual interfaces ( Kinyarwanda and English)
Enhancement of the analytics capabilities; Reports Enhancements, System User monitoring report
Monitoring/ Surveillance of price trends will be enhanced
Extend the system to other telecom operators– Tigo, Rwandatel

15. eSoko Administrator/ RDB- eRwanda
Wilson Musonera
eSoko Administrator/ RDB- eRwanda
Thank You