With the importance of data and evidence in African agriculture gaining momentum, eMKambo has historical data that can enable diverse value chain actors to understand their agribusiness planning, budgeting and decision-making.

By CHARLES DHEWA

Over the past five years, eMKambo (www.emkambo.co.zw) has been collecting data from more than 20 agricultural markets in Zimbabwe. Major parameters of the data existing include: name of farmer; contact details; type of produce supplied to the market; volumes supplied by each farmer; source or farming area and gender of the farmer.

Also available are historical and current daily market prices for more than 50 agricultural commodities that form a food ecosystem.

Data categories

You can get raw data in excel sheets for your own needs-based analysis as well as analysed and interpreted evidence, covering for the following commodities:

Vegetables: Here the data covers a wide range of vegetables from staples to high value crops – cabbages, tomatoes, leafy vegetables, onion as well as peas, green beans, peppers (green, yellow & red), garlic, cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, lettuce and others.

Fruits: On the fruits side, existing data is on locally produced fruits like bananas, oranges, apples, avocado pears, pine apples, lemon as well as imported fruits like apples, plums, strawberries and others.

Tubers: sweet potatoes, yams (magogoya, madhumbe), potatoes, Livingstone potato (tsenza).

Wild fruits: Baobab fruit, tsvubvu, masawu, matohwe.

Field crops: maize, sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, green mealies and indigenous rice.

Legumes: sugar beans, soya beans, cow peas, groundnuts, roundnuts.

Other foods: sugar cane, madora, matemba, soya chunks, rabbits, honey and others.

Poultry and related products: broilers, layers, indigenous chickens, ducks, turkeys, guinea fowls, eggs and others.

14 ways in which the data can be used

Matching agricultural production to consumption patterns, consumer tastes, preferences, market standards and quality expectations.

Identifying periods of gluts and shortages as well as levels of competition at different periods.

Showing responsiveness of particular commodities to changes in their own prices as well as responsiveness to demand, supply and prices of other commodities which may be complements or substitutes.

Bringing out niche markets for various commodities as well as requirements of different niche markets in terms of volumes per given period.

Showing supply corridors for different commodities.

Indicating opportunities for value addition.

Revealing seasonality and consistency in supply.

Identifying value chain actors for collaboration and agribusiness modelling.

Signalling climate change and community resilience.

Showing revenue gathered in various markets and amounts going back to support agriculture and livelihoods in production areas.

For academics – showing areas for research, learning and curricular development.

For financiers – showing opportunities for targeted financing through farmer characterisation and capacity assessment.

For input suppliers – surfacing opportunities for targeted promotion of seed varieties, fertilizer, packaging material, equipment and other inputs.

For processors – simplifying aggregation of commodities and ensure sufficient stock.

 [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]
Website: www.emkambo.co.zw / www.knowledgetransafrica.com
eMkambo Call Centre: 0771 859000-5/ 0716 331140-5 / 0739 866 343-6