Between the weeks of November 3 and December 8, 2014 FEWS NET worked with Mobile Accord (GeoPoll) to carry out three rounds of SMS-based trader surveys in Liberia and Sierra Leone to gather information on the status of market activities and operating costs in areas made inaccessible by the Ebola epidemic. Liberia and Sierra Leone are FEWS NET remote monitoring countries. In remote monitoring countries, analysts typically work from a nearby regional office, relying on a network of partners for information. As less data may be available, remote monitoring reports may have less detail than FEWS NET presence countries The SMS-based survey results serve to corroborate key informant and partner reports on market activities and serve as inputs to FEWS NET’s integrated food security analysis on the impacts of the Ebola outbreak. The first round of data collection identified a sample of traders to monitor and some fundamental characteristics. During the second and third rounds, the survey inquired about current market activities.
Key Messages
This report provides a summary of findings from a FEWS NET trader survey using a SMS-based platform through GeoPoll during the week of December 8, 2014 (third round of data collection). The sample includes over 400 small to large-scale traders across the 14 districts of Sierra Leone.
Over 30 percent of respondents were palm oil traders, followed by cassava (28 percent), imported rice (21 percent), and local rice (20 percent). This distribution reflects the structure of agricultural markets in Sierra Leone, with higher concentration and barriers to entry to imported rice trading (FEWS NET).
Despite an official ban on weekly markets in Sierra Leone, less than 10 percent of traders reported weekly market closures in their local communities. Over 50 percent of traders, however, reported that markets operated at reduced levels. Although it is currently the post-harvest period, over 40 percent of traders indicated that food availability declined since the previous data collection round in November. The same percentage of traders reported food supplies were inadequate to meet local needs.
Restrictions on travel was the most frequently cited reason for reduced market activities. Over 60 percent of traders in Moyamba, Kenema (both quarantined), and Kambia (not quarantined) reported that cash crop sale opportunities had declined since mid-November.