TRICKLE-UP TECHNOLOGY

Tech Gathering highlights innovative irrigation solutions

by Stuart Taylor

We have entered the age of steam. I am standing in a field about two hours’ drive south from Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa watching a small engine puffing away, its flywheel buzzing while it emits small shots of white steam. No, this is not a gathering of 19th century model train enthusiasts. This tiny, one-horsepower steam engine chugging away under the African sun is a cutting-edge piece of technology that has the potential to revolutionize the way subsistence farmers irrigate their fields.

I am at IDE’s 2009 technology gathering in Ziway – a smallish town on the edge of Lake Ziway, one of several lakes lying along the Rift Valley, which cuts through Central Ethiopia. We are at a Farmer Training Centre – a demonstration site for IDE technology run in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture. The solar steam pump we are examining is one prototype that could bring solar power to a new generation of low-income farmers.

Gathering Steam

“Photovoltaic cells are too expensive to use for these pumps,” explains Gert Jan Bom – mechanical engineer with PRACTICA Foundation, one of IDE’s key partners in technology development, “Instead, we are letting the sun heat water directly in this tube.” He points to a long vacuum tube mounted over a set of louvered reflectors that look a bit like large Venetian blinds laid out in the dirt. The reflectors direct the sun’s rays onto the heating tube, which creates steam to power the engine.

The set-up is still a bit makeshift - a woolen blanket is wrapped around the pressure hose with duct tape - but it is working. Able to irrigate a half-acre with an estimated market price of $120, the pump may be an attractive investment for farmers looking to upgrade from a treadle pump.

Using solar energy to run a steam engine is the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that has powered IDE throughout its 25-year history. Investing in research and development is one of the ways that IDE helps local businesses provide important products and services to farmers. As we wander around the Farmer Training Center, we are introduced to some other new innovations that have the potential to give farmers a much-needed boost in their productivity and income.

A Smooth Ride

Looking like a recumbent bicycle mounted over a well, the latest prototype of a pedal-operated rope-and-washer pump is one of the more innovative designs in the field.

The rope-and-washer pump has been around for a few decades and the concept is simple: a rope goes down into a well and back up through a pipe. Washers, spaced out along the rope, push water up and out of the pipe. Unlike the treadle pump, which uses suction and can only lift water from up to six meters below the surface, the rope-and-washer pump can lift water from as deep as 40 metres. at a rate of around 4 litres per minute.

Normally, these pumps have been designed for drinking water, with a hand-driven wheel. However, irrigation requires larger amounts of water and longer pumping times, which is too fatiguing for a hand-operated pump. Over the past year, IDE Ethiopia has developed a pedal-operated version that is ergonomically correct for prolonged pumping with the same muscles one uses to ride a bicycle.

“Our earlier prototypes were not so comfortable,” says Ashley Thomas – a recent MIT grad who has come to Ethiopia to work with local staff on technology development. That is an understatement. I visited IDE’s Technology Development Center in September and did not last long sitting on what was little more than a wooden crossbar. “This version is also much more appropriate for women, who would not sit on the earlier prototype while wearing a skirt,” she adds.

The current version is very comfortable. The broad wooden seat is adjustable – sliding up and down a wood frame to suit the dimensions of the user. I could sit here with a dark Ethiopian coffee and newspaper and water my crops for the morning.

But comfort is not the only consideration. Earlier versions of the hand-operated pump cost over $120. Now, with innovations in the use of local materials and re-design of the pump, the price of this improved pedal version will be around $80 installed. In the pursuit of innovative user-centered design and extreme affordability, the rope-and-washer pump is looking like a winner.

We Know the Drill

It is a scene that we have encountered many times in the lowlands of the Indian Subcontinent, but now we are in Ethiopia, watching a group of four men pulling on a large wooden lever that is driving a hollow pipe into the ground. Spurts of muddy water fly out the top of the pipe with each down stroke. The rotary sludge drive is an affordable alternative to costly mechanical well-drilling equipment. For as little as $30-40, trained well drillers can sink 60-100 feet of pipe into the ground, allowing farmers to tap into underground aquifers for irrigation.

IDE and PRACTICA are working in collaboration to bring this successful well-drilling method from Asia to Africa, with test sites in Ethiopia and Zambia.

As I wander around the Farmer Training Center, I take in some of the other innovations being tested. New drip irrigation systems that use either plastic nipples or laser-cut micro perforations in place of IDE’s traditional microtubes, reducing material costs and increasing efficiency; rainwater harvesting using pond lining and large plastic bladders; and ongoing modifications to improve the venerable treadle pump.

However, one of the most encouraging sights for me is this motley assortment of engineers, agricultural technicians and business managers from at least eight different countries, with their cameras, measuring tapes and notepads, sharing ideas, challenging assumptions, and exuding an inventive and entrepreneurial energy bent on creating new opportunities for some of the world’s poorest farmers. It is a vision of a future where farmers are able to enter a new age of possibility – under their own steam.