Ethiopian Livestock Market Information System: Using ICT to deliver information to rural communities (1)

Post  and Photos by Lisa Cespedes (FAO) 

Today, during the Second Global AgriKnowledge Share Fair taking place at IFAD, Sintayehu Alemayehu, from Ethiopia, gave a presentation on the Ethiopian Livestock Market Information System, developed in 2005 by the Global Livestock Collaborative Research Support Program (GL-CRSP), being implemented by the Texas A&M University and funded by USAID.

The system delivers early warnings on livestock market information; this information is delivered in nearly real time to rural communities, pastoralists/livestock producers and traders in Ethiopia, not only in English, but also in Ahmaric language.This data is delivered by request, through Community Information Centers (CIC), via SMS, emails, radio, television, and the internet.

Sintayehu gave a lively demo on the  application's contents, which can be accessed here: http://www.lmiset.net

"The livelihood of a vast majority of people in East Africa is highly dependent on income from livestock and livestock products. Therefore, the development of reliable and timely livestock market information is vital for the development of the countries in the region and provides a basis for livestock producers and traders to make informed marketing decisions"


The Ethiopian Livestock Market Information System collects, analyzes, storages and disseminates livestock prices and volume market information. It provides complete price and volume data based on animal type, breed, age class, gender and grade at low cost. Finally, it integrates market information with livestock early warning system and expandable system to other commodities.
During today's session, experiences, lessons and challenges were discussed, in reference to the institutionalization of livestock market information and livestock early warning system  into governments' market information and early warning system.
Some of the key achievements of the  Ethiopian Livestock Market Information System are:

• Speedy server deployed at Ministry’s headquarter
• LMIS web portal/gateway for Ethiopia is currently hosted by MOARD
• A steady flow of timely, regular and reliable livestock market information
• Ministry personnel are successfully processing price and sales volume data from the database and disseminating market information   
• LMIS used as benchmark to begin AMIS for crops in the country
• Banks, private traders and government using the data 

For additional information visit:  http://www.lmiset.net