(Cover photo: The Futurepump team with the Director of Farm Africa Project, Kenya, Tom Cadogan)
The 2016 Agricultural Society of Kenya’s Kisumu Agricultural Show ran between 27th and 30th July. Held at the Mambelo Showground, the show is a fantastic place for exhibitors and visitors to gather and discover new innovations and ideas in the agricultural sector. The show attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from across Kenya, neighbouring Uganda and Tanzania and even as far as Rwanda and Burundi.
This year Futurepump were invited to exhibit with Farm Africa, a charity working to bring prosperity to rural Africa through Agriculture.
“The show was a fantastic opportunity for us to provide practical customer service about the pump and share free knowledge about agriculture.” – Charles Ojowi, Futurepump Sales Representative
The show was a great success and we really enjoyed being a part of it. As always, having the opportunity to meet farmers and other exhibitors who are interested in the solar pump is a perk of the job and where better to meet people than at this show. Exhibiting with Farm Africa was in itself a bonus as our values are very aligned towards encouraging and promoting sustainable agriculture in Africa. Farm Africa have regional projects, their main project in the Kisumu area relates to aquaculture and sustainable fishing.
In the Kisumu area and more widely Western Kenya, almost 60% of households rely on fishing as their livelihood, through either income generation or providing food for the table. This is due to its location on the banks of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest freshwater lake. Unfortunately, in recent years over-fishing and pollution have jeopardised the fish stocks in the lake. This is both unsustainable and detrimental to the biodiversity of this magnificent land mark. This is where Farm Africa’s aquaculture project comes in. The idea is to meet the rising demand for fish in a sustainable way. Through setting up aqua shops, one-stop shops for everything an individual would need for setting up their own fish farm, from fish food to advice to market. In addition, Farm Africa is aiming to create a tipping point in the aquaculture industry through a value chain wide intervention focusing on entrepreneurial fish farmers. This intervention is helping to boost small-scale farmer’s production and profitability through technical training and encouraging them to be more market oriented. This initiative is in response to the falling fish stocks and the promotion of small-scale fish farming backed by the Kenyan Government.
But how does fish farming link to Futurepump?
The water from the pond is very good for irrigating crops and that is where the SF1 is ideal. The SF1 can be used to pump out the nutrient rich water which will be replaced with clean water so that the water quality remains good and stock of fish can stay alive and thrive.
Our customers are able to run their solar pump continuously throughout the day and provide some additional aeration to their ponds, sustainably and for free. Using a solar pump for this job makes the process of small-scale fish farming a more sustainable option.
It seems that the encouragement of more small-scale fish farms to reduce over fishing in Lake Victoria and the SF1 solar pump are two harmonious notions. Allowing more small-scale farmers an environmentally friendly way towards a sustainable business.
We thank Farm Africa and the Agricultural Society of Kenya for the opportunity to attend this year’s show and look forward to continuing our work towards sustainable agriculture for small-scale farming in Kenya and beyond.
If you are interested in buying a solar pump for your farm, please fill out a form and we will be in touch.
Author: Helen Davies
