Providing commodity markets information: e-display boards being installed in Punjab cities

Electronic display boards being installed in various cities under the Agriculture Marketing Information Service (AMIS) has increased to 27 from 24 while 134 fruits and vegetables and grain markets have been linked with its website to provide timely, reliable and useable market information to growers, traders, consumers, and policy-makers.
Three new electronic display boards have recently been installed in Pakpattan, Kasur and Chakwal. While 24 were already working in Lahore (three boards), Faisalabad (two boards), Multan (two boards) and one each in Gujranwala, Gujrat, Jhelum, Rawalpindi, Okara, Sahiwal, Khanewal, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Rahim Yar Khan, Toba Tek Singh, Sargodha, DG Khan, Vehari, Sialkot, Sheikhupura, and Jhang.
Under this arrangement, officials of AMIS early in the morning collect auction rates of different commodities in grain and fruit and vegetable markets and put it in the website. Later, through GPRS system, these rates are displayed on electronic display boards installed in various cities at prominent places. Rates are specially taken from eight major markets, including Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan, Okara, Rahim Yar Khan, Sargodha and Rawalpindi.
This was stated by Chaudhry Ahmad Saeed, director, Provincial Market Committees Fund Board, Punjab Agriculture Department and AMIS Project Manager Muhammad Ajmal Chaudhry while talking to Business Recorder here on Wednesday.
Both the officials said farmers after seeing these rates on these electronic boards could analyse where it should take its produce to get more profit. They said farmers could judge where any commodity was available in abundance and where it is short and could get more prices.
They said the AMIS website was also providing export and import data of major crops and commodities, details of agro-based industries and their addresses, feasibility of different agro-based industries and international standards required for export of any commodity.
They said that such an information help the producer to contact directly the user of their commodity without involvement of middle man. Besides this, the AMIS had also put research reports and one-page handouts giving short instructions on issues time to time emerge with any crop, the added.