Transforming Solar Pumping to Eliminate Rural Poverty What if we could harness the limitless power of the sun to carry water to the crops of millions of small poor farmers around the world? If I want to water my petunias, I turn on the tap outside my house, hold my thumb over the end of a battered green hose, and water away. If a small farmer in Ghana or China wants to water a small patch of vegetables he’s growing to sell in the local market, he breaks his back hauling water in two buckets or
sprinkling cans from a nearby stream. It takes six hours a day every other day for three months to water a tenth of an acre of vegetables which he hopes to sell for $100. The billion rural poor people in the world today want out of poverty, but to do that they need to grow more cash crops to increase their income. The only way to grow more cash crops is to pump water. But the current ways of doing it don’t work very well. Foot Pumps, Diesel Pumps, and Solar Pumps A foot-‐operated treadle pump that costs $25 will irrigate as much as half an acre with about four hours/day of work to earn a transformative $100 or more in new income after expenses. But this is very hard work, and anybody in his right mind would prefer to use a mechanized pump if he could afford it. . A five horse power diesel pump irrigates two and a half acres of vegetables, but it costs $350, and $450 a year for diesel, and another $150 a year for repairs -‐ $2100 over three years, not counting the damage to the crop when the diesel pump is down waiting to be repaired. So it is too expensive for poor farmers.