Irrigation-As-A-Service In East Africa – Supporting entrepreneurs in small-scale agriculture – 2023 Water for Food Global Conference.pptx
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“Irrigation-As-A-Service In East Africa” by Natacha Akaliza, Grace Mukarusagara, and Raïssa Urujeni at the 2023 Water for Food Global Conference. A recording of the presentation can be found on the conference playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSBeKOIXsg3JNyPowwJj6NDSpx4vlnCYj.
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Irrigation-As-A-Service In East Africa – Supporting entrepreneurs in small-scale agriculture – 2023 Water for Food Global Conference.pptx
- 1. Natacha Akaliza, Grace Mukarusagara, and Raïssa Urujeni Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska 8 May 2023 IRRIGATION-AS-A-SERVICE IN EAST AFRICA
- 2. This work is funded in part by IFAD grant 2000002828. Introduction Farmer-led irrigation Water for Food activities in East Africa: • Interview key stakeholders • Map the irrigation ecosystem • Analyze & prioritize scalable business models • Support local entrepreneurs
- 3. The problem Challenges facing smallholders: • Cost of equipment & access to finance or subsidy • Knowledge, labor, & cost to transport, store, operate, & maintain pumps and pipes • For women, rights to ownership of equipment
- 4. The solution Irrigation-as-a-service • Pay for service • Owner often provides transportation & maintenance, & may perform the irrigation • User often receives training and support
- 6. SAPU Farmers with dams & fields away from water, i.e 1-2km Livestock farmers in dry regions who need water for cattle Reliable & easily accessible water during the dry season Dams filled quickly at a relatively low cost First come, first served Reliability=trust Face-to-face visitation
- 7. AGRIWORKS For farmers: Easier & less expensive access to irrigation For moto drivers: Predictable & higher income during the dry season Frequent communication between farmer, service provider, & site manager Smallholder farmers growing vegetables near cities Moto taxi drivers (service providers)
- 8. Impacts • Truly, farmer-led irrigation development • Estimated increase in irrigated area in Bugesera district: 8-45% • Estimated increase in irrigated area in Nyagatare district: 3-30% Impacts
- 9. Recommendations • Encourage farmers to lend or rent their equipment • Support entrepreneurs with startup grants and training
- 10. Learn more Report: Current state of irrigation-as-a-service in Rwanda waterforfood.nebraska.edu/entrepreneurship Natacha Akaliza Program Consultant Kigali, Rwanda Grace Mukarusagara +250 781 646 700 akalizanatacha@gmail.com
Editor's Notes
- Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to present here today. My name is Natacha Akaliza, and I am joined by my colleagues Grace Mukarusagara and Raïssa Urujeni. We are part of the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska and will be sharing with you today our research about irrigation-as-a-service as a tool for supporting farmer-led irrigation development.
- Farmer-led irrigation is the process in which a farmer decides when and where to develop irrigation and chooses the most appropriate solutions for his or her needs. Over the last several years, Water for Food has conducted research on irrigation entrepreneurship in Rwanda and now in Uganda. This research is based on dozens of field interviews. We call these discovery interviews, because we ask open-ended questions, talk less, and listen more to discover the needs of key stakeholders in the irrigation ecosystem. These interviews form the basis for our other research and outreach, including mapping the irrigation ecosystem and analyzing innovative business models for irrigation goods and services. We support local entrepreneurs with knowledge, resources, and connections, with the goal of strengthening the capacity for new agtech startups in Sub-Saharan Africa. I would like to acknowledge the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development, which funds this work alongside Water for Food.
- As you all likely know, smallholders in Sub-Saharan Africa face various and numerous challenges in accessing irrigation. For one, the cost of irrigation equipment is often high relative to smallholders’ income. Governments and NGOs try to address this with equipment subsidies, but these subsidies can still be difficult to access. Many banks are wary to provide loans to smallholders, as farming is seen as unpredictable and risky income. Additionally, owning, operating, maintaining, transporting, and storing equipment can be costly, labor intensive, and require knowledge and experience. For women, purchasing equipment may raise issues of rights to ownership of property within a marriage. How are smallholder farmers currently overcoming these challenges, and how can those of us in this room support the efforts which farmers are already undertaking?
- One possible solution is irrigation-as-a-service. In this case, a smallholder does not purchase irrigation equipment. Rather, they pay a service provider. There is a range of cost structures for this service. Irrigation-as-a-service addresses the previous challenges. It has a lower upfront cost than purchasing irrigation equipment. Therefore, smallholder farmers can bypass barriers to accessing credit that often prevent them from obtaining equipment. Additionally, these services reduce farm labor and solve some challenges for female farmers. For example, picking up and transporting heavy pumps in and out of the field every day can be drudgery for women. We have seen business models where the farmer or entrepreneur who owns the equipment will provide the transportation and perform the irrigation. Finally, for many smallholder farmers, borrowing or renting a pump is the first time they access irrigation. Neighbors or pump owners will often train the users on pump operation and maintenance. This builds valuable technical skills that increase a farmer's confidence that he or she can own irrigation equipment one day. To remain concise, I am simplifying the challenges and opportunities facing smallholders. I hope that we will delve deeper into the nuance of these topics during the QandA. For now, let’s look at the types of irrigation-as-a-service business models we observed so far.
- Based on our field research, we identified the tree categories of business models in which farmers are irrigating without owning equipment. These include farmer-to-farmer lending, where a farmer who owns irrigation equipment lends or rents to a farmer who does not, entrepreneur-to-farmer renting, where the entrepreneur rents irrigation equipment to a farmer or sells irrigation services, and water tanker trucks for agriculture and livestock, where farmers hires water tanker trucks to transport water to their field or storage unit from the water source. Among the different irrigation as a service business models we have found, I will highlight two of the most interesting ones under the entrepreneur to farmer category.
- The first business model is by SAPU. SAPU is an entrepreneur in the eastern part of Rwanda, who uses small motor pumps(fuel pumps) to provide irrigation to his customers. Sapu provides reliable and easily accessible water during the dry season for farmers worried about crops or cattle dying. For farmers looking for less expensive or more efficient options to access irrigation, Sapu fills dams quickly at a relatively low cost. The innovation in this business model is that he can connect multiple pumps to move water to a long distance from the water source, up to 2 kilometers. Farmers pay to use the pumps for a certain time period or pay to get water pumped to their farm, which they store in dam sheets.
- The second business model is Agriworks, which is represented on this panel by Abraham. Agriworks operates in Uganda. This is an innovative business, because it is a multi-sided platform, serving and providing value to two unique groups: smallholder farmers and motorcycle taxi drivers. Agriworks provides mobile irrigation services with a motorcycle-powered water pump. The innovation in this business model is that Agriworks does not own the motorbikes, only the pumps that get connected to the motorbikes. Hence, they work with the already excisting motoriders. It is almost like uber but for irrigation. And for this modle, farmers pay an hourly rate for irrigation service.
- IAAS encourages farmers to take charge of their irrigation; it is truly farmer-led irrigation development. It is difficult to know exactly how much land is irrigated with borrowed or rented pumps, due to the informal nature of these transactions. But, based on observed behavior, specifically in Rwanda, we estimate that lending and renting of small pumps has increased actual irrigated area between 8-45% in Bugesera district and 3-30% in Nyagatare district.
- There are opportunities for governments and NGOs to invest in IAAS entrepreneurship, which diversifies their range of investments in small scale irrigation technology. To support scaling-up informal markets, we recommend that governments consider encouraging people, including farmers who own irrigation equipment, to rent their equipment to farmers. We also recommend that NGOs, governments, and others in the private sector support irrigation-as-a-service entrepreneurs with startup grants, subsidies, and training.
- The lessons learned so far with this research in Rwanda and Uganda can be applied to other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. To learn more, please read the full report “Current state of irrigation-as-a-service in Rwanda,” available now on the Water for Food website. You can scan this QR code with your phone camera to be taken directly to the website. Please, feel free to contact me with any questions, or to further discuss irrigation entrepreneurship for smallholder farmers. Thank you!