A Better Harvest

The Challenge

* Roughly 100 million smallholder farmers in India live on less than $1 a day and 500 million are part of small farmer families. This represents more than 30% of the world's extreme poor.

* Modern irrigation technologies have catered to large farmers with fields of four hectares or larger, with no affordable solution for small farmers.

* India is a water-scarce country, accounting for 16% of the world's human population but less than 4% of the world's water resources. The share of water available for agriculture is declining fast and small landholders are the first to be affected by these water shortages.

The Innovation

* Building on more than 20 years of innovation, the promoters of GEWP have approached product design by placing smallholder farmers at the core of the design process from the outset, ensuring affordability and applicability.

* KB Drip is a product offered by GEWP. Low-cost drip irrigation saving both water and money yielding substantial increases in harvests.

* GEWP's distribution strategy leverages market forces by relying on existing small-scale manufacturers and a network of private local dealers to reach its target customers in rural India.

The Impact

* Recent studies have shown that GEWP's products raise the income of its small-scale farming customers by an average of $400/year. This is done through water savings (30-50%), energy savings (50%) and increased crop yields (30-70%).

* In 2003 Acumen Fund invested in GEWP's parent organization, International Development Enterprises - India (IDEI). During the term of Acumen Fund's investment, IDEI sold more than 125,132 units in six Indian states, directly impacting the lives of 650,686 people.

* Acumen is the first equity investor in GEWP. Since Acumens investment in early 2008, GEWP has reached an additional 35,000 smallholder famers, representing more than 184,000 individuals impacted.


Many thanks to Jamie Billet for his tireless efforts producing this video and Vineet & Abha Agrwal for their help with translations.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Drip
• Irrigation
• Acumen
• Fund
• IDEI
• IDE
• GEWP
• KB
• Farmers
• India
• Water
• Agriculture
• bop
• base
• bottom
• pyramid
• social
• enterprise
• entrepreneurship
• poverty
• alleviation
• international
• economic
• development
• food
• security

[bunkywu]

A note from the filmmaker who shot this video: "Their fields were bordering each other. The farmer with the drip had 3 acres (the highest amount for the farmers in the area), one acre each for chili peppers, tomatoes, and cauliflower. The farmer without drip had one acre of chili peppers. Basically, the farmers in this region have fields that are 1 acre per crop, and these farmers had 1 to 3 acres. Their fields are all next to each other and nearby other farmers' plots."

[freebeans4u]

I don't think the farmers share a field, most are small plots. Drip watering is really good saves on water and petrol costs, would be better with a storage tank and a treadle pump. Great video!

[nethyc]

It's interesting how the two farmers share a field. I wonder what the arrangement is.