The SunCulture AgroSolar Irrigation Kit combines cost-effective solar pumping technology with a high-efficiency drip irrigation system to make it cheaper and easier for farmers to grow. The kit pulls water from any water source (lake, river, stream, well, borehole, water harvester, etc.) using solar power. The solar panels provide the pump’s electricity directly without the need for expensive batteries or inverters. Water is pumped into a raised water storage tank during the day. When irrigation takes place during the evening, a valve on the water tank is opened and water flows down through a filtration system and onto crop root zones via drip irrigation tape.
How does your innovation work?
SunCulture’s irrigation systems replace expensive and environmentally harmful petrol pumps with a more efficient, environmentally friendly and affordable solar powered solution. Being independent of power shortages and rainy seasons increases harvesting seasons and thereby farm output. In addition, compared to furrow irrigation, drip irrigation saves about 80% of the water and delivers water and fertiliser directly to crop roots, resulting in yield gains of up to 300%. Besides this, SunCulture is the only company globally to provide a turnkey solar-powered irrigation solution tailored to the needs of smallholder farmers because even with great technology, many smallholder farmers are only one bad growing season away from financial ruin. So in addition to industry- leading solar-powered irrigation systems, our value added services create a one-stop shop solution for farmers which helps them manage the risk inherent in agribusiness. We’ve found that providing these complementary services instead of focusing strictly on technology has enabled us to better meet the needs of our customers and build the trust necessary to facilitate adoption of new solutions. Additionally, only 1% of outstanding commercial bank loans actually go to the agricultural sector. Therefore SunCulture, in partnership with Shell Foundation, launched a Pay-As-You-Grow program to address the $150b global agriculture finance shortfall.

While there is no direct competition to our unique business model, a number of companies offer components of our technology; however none take the full value chain approach. Examples include: Amiran Kenya - leader in greenhouses and drip irrigation, and very established in the market and has customer financing mechanisms with banking partners, but no solar water pumping solution; Agro Irrigation and Elgon Kenya Limited are well known, but expensive and don’t have a solar water pumping solution; Davis & Shirtliff and Solar World are known for water pumping/solar products respectively, but don’t have an agriculture solution. This lack of integration drives up cost as buyers have to aggregate products from several companies with no overall technical support. Because we work directly with manufactures to ensure products are made to our specifications, the company is able to source high quality, low price components, ensuring affordability and maintaining a price advantage over competitors. We were the first company to commercialize solar-powered irrigation in Africa and outside of two conglomerates in India that don't focus on solar-powered irrigation, we are the only company in the world providing a turnkey solar irrigation solution comprising of industry leading technology and value added services and with our Pay-As-You-Grow program, SunCulture is the only company in Africa offering a bundled smallholder irrigation financial product.

SunCulture's 2017 goal is to make its products and services exportable, i.e. easy to plug and play in other countries. The challenge in doing so is that all African countries have different market conditions which identifying and including in our expansion strategy is essential for the functioning of SunCulture’s business model. As a result we have decided to increase our country learnings through a strategic partners based in the different countries. Through our partners we can collect country specific data and assess market potential and challenges with minimal risk. The reason for expanding into different market is to increase the impact that SunCulture already accomplished through its solutions: like saving billion liters of water, save thousands of liters of diesel fuel, generate hundreds of MW hours of renewable energy, reduce thousands of kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions, grow tones of fresh fruits and vegetables, realize millions of dollars of savings and increased yields.