In the heart of Limpopo, where economic challenges often overshadow opportunities, poultry farmer Mologadi Madisha uses a CSIR-developed application (app) to monitor her birds’ feeding habits, vaccinations, thermal comfort, mortalities and sales. The ILIMA app was piloted alongside Madisha and other small-scale farmers to ensure it has all the features they need to digitise farm management and connect them securely to their suppliers and markets. 

“You know, farming itself is very stressful,” says Madisha. “So, you'll want to have something convenient on your cell phone, monitoring even when you're not around the farm.” 

CSIR senior engineer Dr Richmore Dondofema says his team decided to pilot the ILIMA platform on Madisha’s farm so they could identify the precise day-to-day activities that could be enhanced using the technology.  

“The ILIMA app is part of our end-to-end logistics offering, in which we are connecting small-scale farmers with other actors along their value chains. This includes raw material suppliers, feed suppliers and chick providers and those who provide animal veterinary medicine,” he explains. The platform will also connect farmers with abattoirs and clients, such as live markets or household buyers. 

He says there are two stand-out features of the app.  

First, it allows farmers to monitor activities remotely using their mobile phones. “Farmers are not always on the farm. They have to go out to look for feed or funding or they might attend training workshops. While they are away, the app allows them to assign tasks to whoever is at the farm and they can monitor whether those tasks have been completed,” says Dondofema. 

Second, blockchain technology embedded within the app ensures that every logged task is securely recorded and cannot be tampered with, allowing potential customers to trace the history of the product they are buying or consuming.  

“That’s where the principle of farm to fork comes into play,” he says. He explains that today’s market demands transparency around things like the use of growth hormones, medicines, feeding practices, farm conditions, storage and refrigerated transport to markets. 

CSIR principal researcher Dr Isabel Meyer says the iteration of the app that has been specifically customised for poultry smallholders is just one digital solution within the broader ILIMA platform.  

“It has other capabilities to help emerging farmers in several sectors join the value chain, including providing advice on modern farming practices, sharing data with decision-makers overseeing different agricultural sectors and providing access to critical suppliers and logistics providers,” she says. 

Dondofema says they are also expanding the app to assist dairy farmers, pig farmers and even cannabis growers. “This aligns very well with the UN Sustainable Development Goals – we are using innovation to target hunger, to reduce poverty and make sure that we have inclusive growth,” he says. 

The word “ilima” has meanings like “interconnectedness”, “communal action” and “ploughing” in several African languages, so Dondofema says the platform was aptly named. 

“We feel like it’s one of the greatest innovations,” says Madisha, explaining that it was incredibly difficult to keep farming records like stock numbers and care schedules manually prior to using ILIMA. “It makes the business part of agriculture much more efficient and it is simple to use. I am glad the CSIR took this opportunity to dive into young farmers in the industry, especially in the hottest region in the country.” 

“For emerging farmers in Limpopo, ILIMA is more than an app,” says Meyer. “It is a lifeline transforming livelihoods and fostering resilience.” 

The CSIR-developed ILIMA platform was first funded by the DSTI South African National Blockchain Alliance programme and is now under the DSTI Foundational Digital Capabilities Research funding programme. It addresses SDG 1, SDG 2, SDG 9, SDG 10 and SDG 11.