KickStart International is a nonprofitsocial enterprise based in San Francisco that designs and mass-markets manually-powered irrigation pumps to poor rural farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. KickStart uses donor funds to design the pumps, establish the supply chains, demonstrate and promote the pumps, and educate farmers about the benefits and methods of irrigation.
Overview
KickStart is a non-profit organization specializing in irrigation technology targeted to improve the harvests of sub-Saharan Africa's impoverished smallholder farmers. When it comes to food supply, Africa faces enormous instability due to unpredictable climate and water reserves. Only 6% of Africa's cultivated land is irrigated, limiting the volume of crops that can be grown out of season, but increased access to irrigation systems stands to increase food productivity by up to 50%. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations believes that locally produced low-cost treadle pumps could boost security in the region. KickStart's strategy is aligned with this philosophy as the organization designs and sells durable yet affordable "MoneyMaker" branded irrigation pumps. Starting in 1998, KickStart began developing this line of manually operated irrigation pumps which allow farmers to easily pull water from a river, pond, or shallow well, and pressurize it through a hose pipe to reach their crops. The MoneyMaker Max, for example, can pressurize water to a total height of 50 feet, pushing it through a hose pipe as far as 200 m, and can irrigate as much as two acres of land. The low-cost pumps are purchased by poor farmers who use them to irrigate their plots, enabling them to move from rain-fed subsistence farming to year-round commercial irrigated agriculture. KickStart sells the pumps instead of giving them away as Co-Founder Martin Fisher believes it kills local initiative and that people don't necessarily appreciate things that are given. Instead, Fisher believes selling the pumps promotes entrepreneurship instead of dependence. KickStart has offices in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, and Ghana, but works in 18 countries throughout Africa through partner organizations.
History
KickStart was founded in 1991 by Dr. Martin Fisher and Nick Moon. Fisher first went to Kenya on a Fulbright Fellowship to study the Appropriate Technology Movement. Moon went to Kenya as part of the Voluntary Service Overseas the British equivalent of the United States Peace Corps. The two met while working for a large British aid organization and over a period of five years, they worked on multiple kinds of development interventions from building rural water systems, to building schools, and creating job training programs. Out of the frustration of traditional development models, Fisher and Moon built a new model to create a new way to help people escape poverty. Together, they applied the lessons they had learned and in 1991, they founded ApproTEC, which in 2005 became KickStart International. Their model was based on a five-step process to develop, launch and promote simple money-making tools that poor entrepreneurs could use to create their own profitable businesses.
Results
Since 1991, over 220,000 successful new businesses have been started in Africa using KickStart's tools – with more than 800 new businesses being created each month.
