Solar-powered irrigation

Pumping water to irrigate, or water, crops in fields can be expensive, even when there is a river nearby. In Africa farmers are using the sun to provide the power to deliver just what the plant needs - one drip at a time.

Find out more about farming on the LEAF Virtual Farm Walk website, www.virtualfarmwalk.org

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Closed Caption:

I want to show you some of the clever green
technologies we use in agriculture in Africa.
One of them is right behind me.
I want to show you how we get water to the
fields without using any diesel fuel.
Most of our fields have water bodies near
them. On this farm we have a river.
To get the water from the river to the field
would be an uphill task.
We could use a diesel-powered pump but it
would be expensive to buy - and to run.
So we’ve chosen something that costs something
to buy but running costs are low.
It uses the energy from the sun.
What happens is the solar panels catch the
solar energy which then powers the pump down
at the river which pumps water up into the
tanks on legs in the field. Then drip by drip
the water drops on the plants in the field
As the water in the tanks is used, more water
is pumped up.
It takes some investment at the start but
it means the farmer has low-cost drip irrigation
in the farm.
This technology is really catching on.