The water pump

From the archives: “we have wheat, paddy, guava, mangoes, aubergine, cucumber and tomatoes.”

The innocent foundation has always liked to find brave, bold ideas that start small but don’t stay small.

In 2008, trustees heard from Mohharun (pictured, right) about how a water pump had changed the way she farms:

“Before, we were only growing one crop a year because this area suffers water shortages. Then five of us came together to take out a group loan of 30,000R (£375) to buy a water pump.  Now, you can see that our field is green when it used to be brown. We grow crops all year round.  We have wheat, paddy, guava, mangoes, aubergine, cucumber and tomatoes.  Before, we used to just have lentils. Now we are growing a surplus, which we sell it in local markets. I’m proud that women are now recognised as farmers.”

Mohharun is remarkable, and not just because of the turnaround on her farm. She is the first service-user of a programme supported by the innocent foundation to voice her views in the foundation’s trustee meeting.

And trustees listened.

Now, nearly two decades later, the innocent foundation continues to fund irrigation pumps for smallholder farmers. Most recently, we’ve supported Kickstart International to build a radically affordable manual irrigation pump (c. USD80, pictured above).

They marketed the pump first in Kenya in 2019 where smallholder farmers reported that they were happy to be less dependent on increasingly un-reliable rains. From there, they launched in Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, Nigeria, Zambia, Mozambique, DRC and Malawi. Farmers say that they’re able to start growing earlier in the season, and keep growing later, bringing fresh produce to market when competition is less fierce and making a better income as a result. They say that they’re able to grow a wider variety of fruits and vegetables than their neighbours who don’t irrigate, too.

As of the time of writing, Kickstart has sold over 11,000 manual irrigation pumps across 9 countries with support from the innocent foundation, and counting.

Thanks for the tip Mohharun.

To celebrate the innocent foundation’s 20^th birthday, we’re looking back at all the stories—big and small—that add up to our great big dream of a world without hunger.

From one affordable pump, Kickstart has grown to 11,000 pumps across 9 countries , and every one counts. Follow the link for more on our #EveryOneCounts campaign. 

 

read more about kickstart here