Analyse du modèle commercial phygital de Lersha : libérer des opportunités de croissance grâce à des offres groupées intelligentes face au climat pour les agricultrices

Lersha est une plateforme de services agricoles numériques et par agents, exploitée par Green Agro Solution PLC. Elle vise à devenir un guichet unique reliant les petits exploitants agricoles éthiopiens, notamment les agricultrices, à une gamme complète de services agricoles, financiers et commerciaux.

Grâce à son réseau de plus de 2 500 agents locaux, ses applications mobiles et ses centres d’appels multilingues, Lersha met les agriculteurs en relation avec :

• High-quality inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, and agrochemicals
• Mechanization services including ploughing, irrigation, and harvesting
  
• Access to finance, including short-term input loans and insurance solutions
  
• Climate-smart advisory services, such as weather alerts and agronomy guidance
  
• Market linkages, including offtake agreements and aggregated sales to buyers
  

La plateforme est active dans six régions d'Éthiopie et s'étend désormais au Kenya et à l'Ouganda.

Le modèle économique de Lersha repose sur trois piliers clés :

1. A bundled service offering tailored to farmers’ needs
2. A commission-based agent network
   
3. A digital ecosystem of interconnected applications and dashboards that enable data-driven service delivery
   

En Éthiopie, la production maraîchère est principalement assurée par de petits exploitants agricoles, cultivant en moyenne 0,125 hectare. Les femmes représentent environ 40 % des producteurs. Cependant, leurs rendements sont généralement inférieurs de 30 à 40 % à ceux des hommes, et elles sont confrontées à des difficultés telles qu'un accès limité à des intrants de qualité, des pertes après récolte importantes (estimées entre 30 et 40 %) et un accès restreint au financement et aux services de conseil.

L'analyse commerciale inclusive met en lumière plusieurs conclusions clés :

1. Women represent 28% of Lersha’s active users, despite accounting for 19% of total registered farmers, indicating relatively strong engagement among registered women farmers.
2. Women farmers particularly value market linkages and advisory services, followed by information services. Access to quality seeds and fertilizers is also recognized as important to improving productivity.
   
3. Based on the analysis, farmers using Lersha’s bundled services could achieve yield increases of 10-20% for crops such as cabbage, potato, tomato, and onion. Improved and timely market linkages could reduce post-harvest losses from approximately 35% to 20%. Combined, these improvements could increase farmers’ marketable surplus by around 40%. In the case of cabbage cultivation, this translates into a potential 2.5 times increase in net income per season, equivalent to approximately USD 82. Coupling credit with market linkages can also contribute to smoother cash flows throughout the year and reduce reliance on savings.
   
4. The analysis further suggests that vegetable value chains can be commercially attractive for Lersha. Compared to staple crops, vegetables typically involve two to three crop cycles per year, generating higher potential revenue per farmer. Increased farmer engagement combined with commission income through strong market linkages could contribute significantly to Lersha’s future revenue growth.
   
5. The IBA also identifies opportunities to strengthen logistics for market linkage, develop crop-specific risk assessment approaches, test agent retention measures, and design tailored solutions for women farmers, such as savings products and climate insurance linked to weather indicators.