In Sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder farms account for about 80% of all farms, amounting to approximately 33 million in total. These farms largely rely on rainfed irrigation. As a result, their harvests are highly dependent on the weather. When there is more rain, there is a better harvest. However, during drought seasons, not only is it difficult to grow high-value cash crops, but even routine irrigation becomes a problem. This situation leads to lower incomes and also affects food security. Everyone knows that irrigation is the solution, but in reality, less than 5% of the land here can be irrigated. Why? Take irrigation pumps as an example. Oil-powered equipment is too expensive for ordinary farmers to afford.
Fortunately, there is a startup named SunCulture in Kenya that has come up with a new solution: solar-powered irrigation pumps with IoT functions. This approach can not only reduce costs but also help farmers increase their yields and ensure food supply. They have a wide range of products. For example, the ClimateSmart Direct can manage one-acre farms, and the Rainmaker2 can cover farms of up to two acres. There is also the ClimateSmart Battery, which can keep a TV running continuously for 20 hours and can be used conveniently with the irrigation pumps. In addition to selling equipment, they also provide a full range of services: helping customers choose the most suitable pump, providing installation and training, and offering after-sales support. It is said that by using their products, crop yields can be tripled, incomes can increase tenfold, and water usage can be reduced by 80%!
The most remarkable aspect of SunCulture is its proficient use of the Internet of Things. The equipment can collect real-time usage data, and users can receive accurate weather forecasts, which is convenient for arranging farming activities. The company also uses this data to optimize its products and even packages it for the upstream and downstream industries for trend analysis.
In order to enable more people to use their equipment, they have launched an installment payment model called "Pay-As-You-Grow", with three flexible tiers. Existing customers can get rewards for recommending new customers to place orders. In 2021, they launched a mobile app, making the purchase of equipment as convenient as online shopping. Currently, besides Kenya, their products are also being used in countries like Ethiopia and Zambia. In April 2024, SunCulture raised $12 million in capital and plans to enable more farmers to use their irrigation solutions by 2030. As irrigation becomes increasingly important for smallholder farmers, they are truly solving major problems with solar energy and IoT technology.
When it comes to agricultural electricity consumption, the situation during the spring plowing season is also concerning. Water pumps run all day long, and the power grid is at risk of overload. In remote areas without power lines, diesel generators are expensive and environmentally unfriendly. In greenhouses, temperature control equipment is affected by unstable voltage, which harms the crops. These problems are precisely addressed by the energy storage solutions of GP Technology.
Their combination of "commercial and industrial energy storage + distributed energy" is a powerful solution to various problems related to spring plowing electricity consumption. In areas where the power grid is unreliable, a 100kWh household energy storage cabinet can keep the water pump running continuously for 12 hours. A farm in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, has reduced its irrigation costs by 40% and its carbon emissions by 90% by using the photovoltaic energy storage system. For charging agricultural machinery, they have developed mobile charging piles that can be deployed anywhere, and they can fully charge an electric tractor in one hour. By switching to energy storage power supply, the operation cost per mu can be reduced by 15 yuan, and the noise is significantly reduced. The intelligent temperature control system in greenhouses is even more impressive. It can automatically supply power for heat preservation at night to prevent frost damage and can adjust the brightness of supplementary lights intelligently, increasing the electricity usage efficiency by a quarter.
Now, with GP Technology's set of solutions including "off-grid power supply + mobile fast charging + intelligent control", the electricity consumption mode during spring plowing has been completely transformed. The old saying "Plant melons and beans around Grain Rain" has now been changed to "Store electricity during Grain Rain and have a bumper harvest in autumn"! Relying on these new technologies, farmers have not only gotten rid of the limitations of the power grid but also reduced the energy consumption cost per mu by 35%. Farming can now contribute to carbon neutrality, which is what modern agriculture should look like!
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Post time: May-11-2025
