Building Networks for Market Access. Lessons Learned from The Rural Knowledge Network (RKN) Pilot Project for East Africa (Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania)

As the name suggests, the original aim of the Rural Knowledge Network (RKN) was to make more information available specifically about markets, to smallholder farmers. The core idea was to provide information to farmers and traders about current market prices in different markets around the country. This was done by building a network of entrepreneurs who regularly collected the price information and sent it to a central collecting Internet platform facility. By the end of the project in March 2010, the RKN project had given birth to a network comprising three National Marketing Companies (NMCs), i.e. AgriNet Uganda Ltd, in Uganda, AgriTrade Co. Ltd, in Kenya, and Rural Entrepreneurs Network Tanzania (RENTCO) in Tanzania. Each company operates a network of rural entrepreneurs covering several districts within a region. This report describes the RKN project and its main achievements. It also includes best practices and recommendations.