EEP grantee SunCulture manufactures and finances solar-powered water pumping and irrigation systems for smallholder farmers across Africa. SunCulture’s goal is to provide cheaper and more sustainable way to grow high quality vegetable by replacing expensive and environmentally harmful fuel pumps with efficient solar pumps and by offering a wide range of affordable irrigation solutions.
Very few tailored products for the masses of smallholder farmers are available in Africa, and the lack of access to tools, knowledge and financing keeps the productivity of these farmers low. Besides the pumping and irrigation products, SunCulture supplies installation, soil sampling and other services. SunCulture’s financing platform “Pay-as-You-Grow” aims to close the financing gap which is major barrier for development of the farmers. Switching from rainfed agriculture to using irrigation system can lead to over ten times higher income for the farmer.
With a range of products SunCulture can easily scale up and down the product ladder to serve customers cultivating a small 1/8 acre plot up to 200 acre farms. SunCulture products are easy to use, maintain and acquire. The cutting-edge pump controller automatically optimizes solar pump’s performance and battery charging based on cloud cover.
According to SunCulture the EEP funding has been catalytic for their success. With the EEP grant SunCulture has been able to optimise their business model and reach more than 570 farmers. Read the full Innovative Business Model story here and take a look at the five previously published EEP IBMs.