Portable solar pumps for all of Zambia

Quick refresher

Jacana has been working on improving and refining affordable solar pumps for several years now.

The first solar pumps were installed in boreholes near homes in 2020. This had to be done near the home, because if you installed them anywhere else, the solar panels would be stolen.

The pieces of land where farmers in Zambia grow their vegetables are often quite a distance from the homes, close to a river or stream or a place where the groundwater is not deep. To accommodate these farmers, Jacana has developed a portable solar pump. The system consists of two solar panels and a pump that can be put in a river, open well or stream. It comes with a hose pipe and the total weight is approximately 15kg. This makes it possible for farmers to take the pump to the field in the morning and store it safely in the house in the evening. In addition, the pump including panels and pipe currently costs less than USD 185 (that includes transport and profit for the distributor and local shops). An average farmer can pay for this with the proceeds of one harvest.

With the pump, farmers can still grow crops during the 6-month dry season and thus ensure that everyone in their area has food.

For Jacana it is important that the pump does not go directly from the factory or distributor to the farmers, but that local entrepreneurs play an important role in the distribution of the portable solar pumps. The advantage of this is of course that they earn money with it, but also that their customers know where they can go for maintenance or possibly a second pump or other products.

At the moment, some donors bring products directly from the distributor or even the factory to their beneficiaries. In doing so, they sometimes unknowingly damage the already vulnerable local distribution networks. Because donors often provide products (almost) free of charge at the door, existing shops lose customers and therefore the interest in keeping spare parts in stock. After such a sponsored project, beneficiaries do not know where to go if repairs are needed or if they want to buy an extra product.

That is one of the reasons why Jacana chooses to approach it differently and involve local entrepreneurs. In order to support NGOs (donors), local entrepreneurs and the distributor in this, Jacana has developed an App that facilitates the entire self-supply chain.

This video (3 minutes) explains a bit more:

An example

An NGO wants to donate 200 portable solar pumps to farmers. Instead of physically delivering the pumps to the farmers, they now only give them a discount coupon with a QR code. The farmer takes his discount coupon to one of the shops mentioned on the coupon. The shopkeeper scans the QR code and the system indicates that in exchange for the coupon and an optional small contribution (commitment fee), the beneficiary will receive a pump. The shopkeeper then scans the pump, notes some details of the customer and takes a photo if the customer gives permission. The customer receives a message explaining the guarantee.

The shopkeeper uses the coupon to replenish his stock from the distributor’s warehouse. At the distributor, the sponsored stock (of 200 pumps) is reduced by 1.

The software also enables remote quality control. If you want a certain product to be checked at a few points before sale, you can set that up. Review is then done remotely by means of detailed photos.

Every party involved (including the donor) can follow the progress live. If someone scans a product with a standard QR scanner, you can see the complete product history. This way you can easily show your friends where the pump is available and even get directions to the store.

Example discount coupon

An additional advantage is that areas where partially sponsored pumps are implemented automatically become “show case areas”. This means that friends, acquaintances and interested parties of partially sponsored farmers see how the pump works in practice and that you can double your harvest with it. This is “free” word-of-mouth advertising for the shopkeepers. Because the pump is affordable, non-sponsored farmers can also buy it with the income from one harvest.

People who buy the pump themselves without any support or subsidy, are called Self-supply customers. This reduces “donor dependency” and is ultimately the goal of Jacana’s projects.

It is also interesting for the donor to see that their donation has a continuously growing impact. The software collects evidence and visualizes the impact. This motivates NGOs in other possible areas to do something similar. The evidence you need for reporting and fundraising is collected by the app.

The project is now (Dec 2024) half a year old and at https://self-supply.com you can see what the results are so far.

Next year Jacana will test and refine this distribution system remotely (outside the eastern province). If you think your project fits in there, let us know.