Access to affordable solar-powered agricultural equipment

Modern solar water pumps can provide clean irrigation systems that increase smallholder farmers' yields by as much as four times, enable them to grow a wider variety of nutritious crops, and mitigate periods of low or irregular rainfall. 4R Digital and its partners are developing new business approaches to make affordable modern solar water pumps accessible to smallholder farmers, combining the latest solar and digital technologies.

Petrol, diesel and hand water pumps are costly or inefficient

Despite smallholder farmers producing most of Kenya's food, only 3% of arable land is irrigated, and most rely on increasingly unpredictable rainfall. An estimated 1.7 million farmers could increase their daily income by an average of 1.8 times with appropriate solar irrigation. However, a key constraint is the lack of financing to enable smallholder farmers to acquire and use solar irrigation technologies, and the cost of serving rural customers can make building new sales and service infrastructure prohibitive.

Combining new technologies and business models to serve smallholder farmers and communities

4R Digital and its partners are addressing this water challenge in a way that creates new jobs and serves smallholder farmers and their communities. This involves offering solar water pumps through partners' extensive sales networks and making the equipment affordable through digital technologies combined with a pay-as-you-go payment scheme. The ability to remotely control solar water pumps means farmers can repay loans flexibly, while partners can ensure the pumps remain secure until ownership transfers.

The opportunity is to make solar water pumps and irrigation equipment available and affordable to tens of thousands of smallholder farmers in Kenya and elsewhere, increasing their incomes and improving the livelihoods of their families and local communities. This solution can then be extended to water pumping solutions for rural communities more broadly.

Technology can help increase productivity and resilience to climate change

This combination of an established water solutions business innovating into pay-as-you-go through the adoption of digital technologies can enable tens of thousands of smallholder farmers to achieve more predictable incomes and become less vulnerable to changes in weather patterns caused by climate change. Solar water pumps can also provide water for homes and clinics, improving sanitation and reducing the time largely spent by women and children collecting water.