It is estimated that sub-Saharan Africa has more than 30 million small-scale farmers, all of whom face periods of extreme drought during which they are unable to farm. Their annual investment capital is limited to an average of €400, which they earn from their harvest. Their unguarded fields are often located more than a kilometre away from their homes, where they cannot leave any equipment behind.
With an affordable portable solar pump (see: https://portablesolarpumps.com) many of them can also produce food in dry season.
Portable solar pump
Jacana has been given the opportunity, through a donation from Partners for Water (Dutch government) to:
- improve the portable solar pumps,
- prepare for mass production,
- developing software that enables a sustainable supply chain,
- to test and optimise the whole system.
Together with various user groups, work has begun on designing the Self-supply App, which facilitates sustainable supply chains in developing countries and manages logistics between manufacturers, warehouses, shops and customers. Charities like NGOs who want to help small-scale farmers with irrigation can use the app to monitor how many pumps have been supplied and what the impact of their programme is. That impact does not stop at the number of farmers who receive a partially sponsored pump; it also includes the shops and, more importantly, the farmers who are not directly involved in their programme but are inspired by it and purchase a non-sponsored pump themselves (=Self-supply).
Partially sponsored versus unsponsored.
How partially sponsored projects inspire people to solve their water problems themselves.
Example of a discount coupon.
Meanwhile, the pump has been improved and is now in full-scale bulk production.
The improved pump and software were then tested in Chipata, close to Jacana’s headquarters. This was done to iron out any teething problems.
NGOs can give their beneficiaries (farmers) a discount coupon with a unique QR code (see above), which states how much the farmer has to pay the retailer and how much the NGO is sponsoring. The farmer can take the coupon to one of the shops in the neighbourhood and, upon presenting the coupon and paying their small commitment fee, receive the portable solar pump from the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper then takes the coupon to the distributor and receives a new portable solar pump, which they can sell again.
The shopkeeper can, of course, also sell directly to non-sponsored farmers, in which case the full amount is charged. Everything is recorded in the app. Each pump and solar panel has a unique QR code and is scanned. This allows the warranty and maintenance of the pump to be tracked and the direct and indirect impact of donors to be measured (see graph above).
