ICT and Ag Profile: Lima Links

The project is led by FHI 360 and provides technical assistance to USAID missions. FACET's field support is designed to help missions overcome the challenges of implementing ICT interventions in agricultural development. Lima Links is a mobile phone point of sale (POS) and inventory control app that provides nearly 'live' horticultural market price data to farmers in Zambia. The app is used by wholesale agents, allowing them to manage crop intakes from farmers along with their sales to retailers and marketeers. Lima Links aggregates these transactions across all agents in a market, generating an average price per crop. The system does not use enumerators, instead relying on a minimum of 10 transactions in a 36-hour period to generate prices. Prices are cross-checked by market-price quality assessment monitors employed through the Zambia National Marketeers Association (or Zanama). The technology used by Lima Links is a feature phone with an internet connection or any SMS-capable phone. The system was started by SANGONeT, a South African NGO, and International Development Enterprises (iDE), with initial funding of $200,000 from the Gates Foundation. Currently, there are no fees charged to either farmers or wholesale agents. The primary markets for Lima Links are in Zambia, with coverage of 10 markets, and a pilot project underway to increase cross-border trade between the Zambia copper belt and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The users of Lima Links are primarily $2/day farmers with farm plots between 0.5 and 4 hectares and who have enough production to permit some level of market sales. There are currently 200 transactions per day through the point of sale system. The business model for Lima Links relies on funding from the Gates Foundation, with minimal advertising revenue. Plans are also in place to have wholesale agents and farmers pay for data costs by 2013.