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Rural economic growth is seen as a way to support the country's development, while the use of agricultural market information services is a platform to contribute rural economic growth. The Agricultural Marketing Office of the Department of Planning and Statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has been collecting prices information of agricultural products and quantities, labor wages and disseminating information to the public in order to develop agricultural market information services to enable farmers, stakeholders and the government access accurate and timely information to contribute to improving farmers' incomes, making effective decisions and interventions on food security. In addition, agricultural marketing information enables farmers to plan, grow and harvest on proper time, and enable them to make decisions about where to sell and when to sell and to store or process the product for a better price. Thus, farmers have power to negotiate with traders.
The aim of the Agricultural Marketing Information Service (AMIS) is also to improve agricultural stakeholders’ ability to access, gather, analyze and use information to better respond to market needs.
The Agricultural Marketing Office (AMO) aims to develop an Agricultural Marketing Information Service that provides consistent, accurate and timely market information and intelligence to all concerned stakeholders. This is being done in order to assist the stakeholders in generating higher returns from their relevant enterprises, and to contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction.
To promote and facilitate agricultural produces, the Agricultural Marketing Office (AMO) recently developed online market Application called CAMAgriMarket which is available to download (Android and IOs) for free to use. The online market App enable farmers, traders and other stakeholders who are working in agricultural marketing to meet online to be informed on selling/buying. With this application farmers can announce their harvest time, volume, price, location and can make negotiation online.
The Agricultural Market Information Service has two main components: the market information component and the market development component.
The Agricultural Marketing Officers in Phnom Penh and 25 other provinces collect wholesale agricultural price information three times per week, and retail agricultural price information one time per week, in 30 major markets and other collection points. The price information is broadcasted daily through local FM and AM radio stations, website, bulletins and by SMS. Reports detailing the price information are produced and distributed to the various ministries and relevant institutions in order to assist in policy making and planning.
In 2009, the market information component was further expanded by the introduction of the SMS based market information system. The SMS system assists agricultural producers and traders by giving them access to the price information which is essential for marketing their produce.
At the end of 2007 AMIS was expanded by the introduction of the Farmer Marketing School (FMS). The FMS was developed to assist producers of fruit and vegetables with the production, grading and marketing of their produce. This was done with the involvement of wholesale traders of fruit and vegetables to establish better links between producers and traders and to utilize the marketing knowledge of the traders.
AMO team members in the provinces have been trained as trainers of trainers (TOT) in order to conduct the FMS training. For each FMS between 22 and 26 farmers are trained in pre- and post-harvest techniques, production costing, grading, packaging, storage and marketing. The duration of the training is four days over a period of one to two weeks, and the farmers that participate are selected by the AMO team. Training is also conducted for NGOs. For example, CARE international and ADDA have both received training from the Farmer Marketing School.
Price information and more details about the Farmer Marketing School are now also available on this website.