Innovative commodity market information system made available in Bhutan (en)

The Agriculture Market Information System (AMIS) will benefit small and medium businesses and farmers in Bhutan by providing them with real-time price information on agricultural commodities, empowering them to get better prices and improve their incomes.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, AMIS was successfully put to use, as a strategic source of information for monitoring and managing the unprecedented hike in the prices of various food products

Available on mobile devices, AMIS delivers market information directly to the fingertips of Bhutanese producers in all provinces. It includes the latest commodity and auction market prices from across the country.

It is the first time such an online agriculture market price information system is available for producers in Bhutan, which is a unique and innovative leap forward for improved, inclusive and efficient agricultural market systems in the country.

AMIS was developed with strong institutional anchorage and ownership, through consultations with Bhutanese public and private sector representatives. Following several rounds of pilot testing, AMIS brings a comprehensive and responsive software that is close to the needs of its end-users across the country and the agriculture value chain.

Hosted by the Department of Agricultural Marketing and Cooperatives (DAMC), the service is propelled by 29 fully coached and trained data collectors from the 20 provinces. Data is collected weekly using tablets or smartphones by the Agriculture Extension Officers based in Geogs in partnership between DAMC and the Department of Agriculture (DOA).

AMIS is available on AndroidTM mobile devices through a dedicated smartphone app on the Google Play Store and to all other devices, at https://amis.gov.bt

The tool was officially launched on 24 June by Bhutan Minister of Agriculture and Forests, Mr. Yeshey Penjor, Ambassador of the European Union to India and Bhutan, Mr. Ugo Astuto, and Director of Division of Country Programmes, International Trade Centre (ITC), Mr. Ashish Shah.

AMIS was developed with financial support from the European Union under the framework of EU-Bhutan Trade Support Project, which is being implemented by the International Trade Centre (ITC).