Despite the availability of groundwater, most African farmers do not have the economic wherewithal to access the water because pumps and other irrigation equipment are too expensive. Currently available manual pumps are labour intensive, and often not suited for the needs of women farmers.Motorised pumps currently on the market are expensive and require diesel, the cumulative costs of which are high.
The lack of cost effective irrigation solutions has prevented the demonstrating of the benefits of irrigation at a large scale and existing solutions are not appropriate, reducing demand.However, there is a demand for increased agricultural productivity to meet the food needs of a growing population which will feed through to demand for appropriate solutions.
A successful outcome would be a prototype that delivers significant improvements in terms of cost, energy requirements and volume of water delivered when compared to existing irrigation solutions.
The competition opens on 28 September 2015 and registration closes on 2 December 2015. For more information, and to sign up to the challenge, click here.
