One of the more useful tools ever developed for the word's poor farmer is a device called a treadle pump.
The treadle pump looks and operates much like an exercise machine that you'd find a gym. But the farmers who use these devices are not trying to lose pounds; they're trying to gain them.
More than 850 million people in the world today are hungry most of the time. Oddly enough, many of these people live pn farms. These farm families go hungry because they don't have the resources to make their land produce enough food to meet their needs.
For many of them, the missing resource is water. And that's where the treadle pump comes in.
Traveling through Bangladesh some years ago, barren land. It was January, which is the dry season in this country. The amount of rainfall is not enough for farmers to grow crops. Without access to irrigation water, small farmers leave their land unplantee, which in turn leaves them hungry and poor.
But northeast of Dhaka, tjje fields were green and filled with activity. Men and women, children and patents, were operating treadle pumps.
Tre operator for the treadle pumps pedals up and down on two poles called treadle. This action sucks water up through a shallow well. The water then flows into a irrigation ditch that travels into the fields to water crops.
For a total investment of about $35, Bangladesh farmers can irrugate half an acre ( about 1.5 school gymnasiums) during the dry seasons. They can grow enough to support their families. They can also sell food at the market. The technology of a treadle pump is relatively simple and it does not cosr very much money, making it "radicallt affordable" compared to other irrigation technologies.
Many small farms are owned by women. So the treadle pump can radically change lives of women by providing an opportunity for them to run their small farms. To help poor women buy their own pumps, a nomprofit organization called KichStar established a Mobile Layaway program. This program allows women farmers to pay for a pump by sending small payments through their mobile phone. Paying a little bit at a time, many women are able to pay a pump within ten weeks.
In March, 2012 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented KichStar with the first - ever Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls. Secretary Clinton said, "If you just stop ans think that 60 to 70 percent of the small - holder framers in the world are women, this (project) has enormous potential."
People who use treadle pumps don't have to do the hard work of treadling forever. As they move up the income ladder, they can turn to a labor - saving irrigation system, perhaps powered by diesel or solar energy. With extra time, women many start a business. Girl will atend school. Unleashed from poverty and hunger, the entrepreneurial spirit will soar.
The power of a water pump - designes for its "radical affordability" - should not be underestimated.