MOBILE PHONE TECHNOLOGY AND FISH MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM (FMIS) IN GHANA
For small-scale fish producers and artisanal fishermen in Ghana, readily available market information on prices and demand for fish at different fish markets helps inform production and harvesting decisions. Minimizing the information gaps along the fish value chain greatly improves efficiencies and reduces post-harvest losses in fish marketing and the value chain as a whole. The technology is a cell-phone based Fish Market Information System (FMIS) with a focus on tilapia and catfish. This is because tilapia and catfish are the dominant fish species farmed and caught in inland waters. The FMIS has a database of farm-gate and market prices of tilapia and catfish in selected locations in Ghana. The FMIS is web-based and provides tilapia and catfish market information on-line as well as via voice and text messaging to users. The system is set up in a form that can easily be accessed by users from any mobile device anytime (Figure 1).
There are two types of subscribers to the system - registered users and ad-hoc users. The system can send out (push) farm-gate and market price information to only the registered users. However, to request (pull) information on tilapia prices from the system, both registered users and ad-hoc users can access the system either by dialling or text messaging to a 10-digit phone number or a 4-digit short code. The code is "1941," and can be accessed on the top 3 mobile phone networks in Ghana (MTN, Airtel and Vodafone) by text with the following keywords; 'Tilapia,' 'Til,' 'Cat,' 'Catfish.' The voice feature of the system when a user requests for information includes messages in English and three native languages - Twi, Ga and Ewe. The future plan is to expand the capabilities of the system to include capture fisheries to benefit the marine and inland artisanal fisheries subsector.