ISSN 2348-1196 (print) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology Research ISSN 2348-120X (online) Vol. 8, Issue 2, pp: (37-41), Month: April - June 2020, Available at: www.researchpublish.com
A Web-enabled Decision Support System for peasant farmers and small scale entrepreneur Case of Morogoro-Tanzania Rigobert Francis Buberwa Ardhi University, Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania
Abstract: In today’s global economies, Geographic Information System (GIS) assisted by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have emerged to be agents of changes in the way people conduct their business and organizations have continued to re-engineering their business to accommodate these vital technologies. This wind of change ought to permeate every business sector if these technologies are to help alleviate poverty in emerging economies. Consequently, through productive, the entrepreneurs do not get good value of who needs what they produce. They tend to be unaware of who needs what they produce (i.e. their key market), when their produce is mostly needed and how much they can sell their produce at, who can render services to their business at affordable prices, etc. even when they are aware of the key markets. These tend to be far flung cities when the cost of distribution becomes a bottleneck. This paper, is part of an on-going public services in Morogoro as pilot Region. We propose the use of web based GIS portal to help ease the conduct of business by small scale entrepreneurs in Tanzania. We contend that these entrepreneurs could get good value of their goods and services if they could share marketing information using cost effective means that cut the cost of distribution and help them only pay for services that they can afford. Keywords: Geographic Information System, Information and Communication Technology, Web-enabled System, database, Portal, decision support system.
I. INTRODUCTION Tanzania has an estimated 43 million hectares suitable for farming, however, only 71 percent of this land is cultivate. Small –scale farmers constitute 96 percent of all farmers [1], this has resulted into rampart rural poverty. One of the greatest challenges to poverty alleviation in underdeveloped economies is how to ensure that small scale entrepreneurs, peasant farmers or individual entrepreneurs get good value for their goods and services. The trends in underdeveloped economies such as Tanzania tends to favour large enterprises or multi-national conglomerates that have the capacity to advertise their products and services using print and electronic media. They also have the ability to distribute their goods and services in order to service a business contract. In this way, they have access to a wide range of market in which they can dictate pricing in order to get good value for their goods and services. The cost of their goods and services are usually beyond the reach of small scale entrepreneurs, peasant farmers, individual entrepreneurs and the poor majority who are usually exploited. Thus there is no room for small-entrepreneurs, peasant farmers or individual entrepreneurs to gain competitive advantages due to lack of information. In Tanzania for example, the cost of distribution stands out as major bottleneck to the conduct of business by the poor majority. The poor railway network and underdeveloped telecommunication infrastructure means there is a heavy overreliance on road transportation, which itself lacks a proper road network, for distributing goods and services. Distribution costs and access to market are the major hindrance to the effective conduct of business by peasant farmers, small-scale entrepreneurs and the vast majority of small enterprises. These categories of entrepreneur usual travel hundreds of miles carrying their goods in search of market at high cost. They are unaware of who needs what they have or how much they would get for their goods if a buyer was found. Whether they find a buyer or not, they still have to pay for transportation.
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