SWFF Innovators

Bhungroo – Naireeta Services

India

Using handmade pipes 10 to 15 centimeters in diameter, Bhungroo filters, injects, and stores rainwater underground for usage in lean periods. In addition to providing food security during rainy periods and crop survival in lean periods, Bhungroo can also supplement household water needs.

Drought Prediction Tool – CUT, Free State

Mozambique, South Africa, Kenya

This drought early warning system integrates indigenous and scientific drought forecasting that uses a mobile application, a web portal, and SMS service to pool weather information through a network of sensors that monitor weather conditions for small-scale farmers.

Hydroponics Africa Simplified All-Inclusive Hydroponics Services

Kenya

In Kenya, Hydroponics Africa leverages the use of local materials to grow healthy plants and helps farmer to produce maximum yields on small areas without use of soil, while using 80% less water.

Integrated Aquaculture and Crop Production – SkyFox Ltd

Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone

In Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, SkyFox Ltd's innovation involves top-of-the-hill aquaculture ponds capable of producing two tons of catfish twice a year and nutrient-rich water for irrigating 25-acres at the base of the hill. SkyFox will lease ponds and irrigation land and provide extension services to resource-poor farmers.

MimosaTEK

Vietnam

MimosaTEK's solution - an Internet of things platform for precision agriculture in Vietnam - monitors and analyzes data on farms by sensors (to measure soil moisture, rain, wind, light) to recommend to farmers a precise irrigation schedule in real-time.

Saline Vegetables – Lal Teer Seed Ltd

Bangladesh

Lal Teer Seed combines locally developed, saline-tolerant vegetable seeds with easily adoptable methods for cultivating in high saline areas of Southern Bangladesh, and includes micro-finance linkages, information and communications technology support, and extension advisory services.

WASTE Stichting – Circular Economy

India

Circular economy with black and grey water recycling for exotic vegetables cultivation in Nilgiris District, Tamil Nadu, India.

SWFF GRADUATE

Affordable Greenhouses – World Hope International

Mozambique, Sierra Leone

In partnership with Pennsylvania State University, World Hope is producing and distributing Affordable Greenhouses that enable a year-round growing season and reduction in water consumption.

Aquaponics Farming – Water Governance Institute

Uganda

Promoting commercial aquaponics farming among smallholder farmers/households for water efficiency, food security, and livelihoods improvement.

Barsha Pump – aQysta Holding BV

Nepal

A low-cost, hydro-powered irrigation pump that does not require any fuel or electricity, has no operating expenses, and does not emit any polluting greenhouse gases.

Biodegradable Seed Tape – Reel Gardening

South Africa

A simple, quick, and effective biodegradable paper tape that encases organic fertilizer and seeds at the correct depth and distance apart, resulting in a potential saving of 80% in water consumption.

BioEnsure® – Adaptive Symbiotic Technologies

United States, India

A fungus found in Yellowstone National Park that reduces water consumption, increases drought tolerance, and enhances crop yields with no negative impact when applied to seeds.

Broad Bed and Furrow Maker – Aybar Engineering

Ethiopia

Broad Bed and Furrows Maker (BBM) reduce planting time and drain excess water away from crops, using lighter-weight materials appropriate for Ethiopian farmers.

Ecorangers and Meat Naturally – Conservation South Africa

Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa

Meat Naturally Pty uses ecological science, a government job creation program, and market interest in sustainable meat to implement communal grazing systems that result in improved water and food availability.

Electrodialysis Reversal (EDR) System – MIT/Jain

India

EDR is desalination process in which an electric potential is applied to electrodes, and dissolved salt ions are pulled through ion exchange membranes to separate the salts from the water.

Flying Sensors – FutureWater

Mozambique

FutureWater provides smallholder farmers with insights that are critical to improving their application of limited resources such as water, seed, and fertilizer.

Irrigation Scheduling System – Institute for University Cooperation

Peru

An irrigation scheduling system that provides farmers with direct indications on when and how much to irrigate. Through a climate station, the system measures air temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, intensity of solar radiation, and rains.

Mobile Weather Forecasts – Ignitia AB

Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal

A highly accurate weather model that helps farmers to sow, fertilize and harvest at the optimum time, manage their daily activities, improve crop yields, and optimize food production.

Rainmaker – MyRain LLC

India

A customized irrigation system design tool that removes the complexity of drip irrigation design and installation for small agro-retailers across India. The application enhances water efficiency by up to 50%.

Salt-Tolerant and Resilient Crops – International Center for Biosaline Agriculture

Egypt, Yemen

A non-GMO, salt-tolerant quinoa that can enable significant food production in saline soils, without the need for fresh water.

Sandbar Cropping – Practical Action Bangladesh

Bangladesh

A low-cost model that transforms previously unused sandy islands that appear after each rainy season into large-scale pumpkin farms.

Slurry-Separation System – Green Heat Uganda Ltd

Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda

A slurry separation system that vastly reduces the water demands of anaerobic digesters, creates a solid fertilizer which is easy to handle, increases gas production, and improves pathogen kill.

SWFF Alumni

AgroSolar – Islamic Relief Kenya

Kenya

AgroSolar Irrigation Kit (ASIK) is a combination of off-the-shelf, proven, no-frills, cost-effective, solar powered pumping and drip irrigation technologies.

Flask Wall Mushroom Growing House – University of Malawi

Malawi

An innovative, water-efficient flask-wall mushroom growing house design for smallholder farmers in Malawi.

Freshwater Management System – Arcadis

Mexico

A sustainable, innovative freshwater management system that prevents groundwater salinization in coastal areas.

Greenhouse – Deutsche Welthungerhilfe e.V.

Tajikistan

An innovative combination of low-cost rainwater harvesting and greenhouse technology that allows vegetable production during colder months when no water for agricultural production is typically available.

Groasis Waterboxx – Institute for University Cooperation

Jordan

An integrated planting technology that allows planting fruit, fodder trees and shrubs in degraded farmland and rangelands.

Lilypad – Puralytics

Mexico

A reusable, chemical-free solar-activated water treatment product that floats on a body of water to kill viruses, bacteria, and protozoa in water used for agriculture.

M-Fodder – Center for Sustainable Dryland Ecosystem and Societies (CSDES) – University of Nairobi

Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda

Enables smallholder livestock farmers to send an SMS and receive high-quality hydroponically-produced fodder for their livestock.

Project Alba

Cambodia

The Project Alba business model addresses barriers related to both technologies and practices for efficient water use and increased yields.

Salt-Tolerant Potato – MetaMeta & SaltFarmTexel

Pakistan

A non-GMO, salt-tolerant potato that requires very little fresh water for cultivation. Scaling up access to this potato will contribute to better use of lands and waters that have high salinity and will reduce the pressure on freshwater resources.

Salt-Tolerant Quinoa – Wageningen UR

Chile, China, Vietnam

Non-genetically modified salt-tolerant quinoa that not only grows but also thrives in saline soils.

SPONGE – IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute Ltd

Bhutan, Bangladesh, Belize, India, and Nepal

SPONGE is an innovative irrigation technology - a techno-biological system - that greatly improves water utilization and supply in Bhutan, Bangladesh, Belize, India, and Nepal. Using water from fog and dew, SPONGE increases water reliability in a region with abundant, but highly intermittent water availability.

SWAR – Centre for Environment Concerns

India

The innovation delivers assured spread moisture at plant root zone to cultivate vegetables, flowers, fruit/forestry trees using only one fifth of water compared to Indian drip irrigation systems.

The Buried Diffuser – Institute for University Cooperation

Tunisia

Patented underground irrigation technique for field and green house trees, shrubs, vegetables in fields and green houses that enhances efficiency of water resources, increases crop productivity, and makes rain-fed agriculture sustainable.

Waterpads® – MetaMeta Research B.V.

Ethiopia, Turkey

A sandwich of paper and jute with an inner layer of 0.5 mm large granular polymers in dry form. The polymer absorbs 100 times its own weight of water (7 grams absorbing 1 liter of water) retaining water at binding tension.

Weather System – Trans African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO)

Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda

TAHMO's weather stations measure meteorological and water resource variables (rainfall, radiation, temperature, humidity, wind speed/direction, soil moisture, etc) and send the data via GSM networks to a data server, providing accurate, localized, and timely weather information.

Zero Discharge Desalination (ZDD) – University of Texas – El Paso

Honduras, Latin America

ZDD is a hybrid process that combines reverse osmosis (or nanofiltration) as the primary desalter and electrodialysis metathesis (EDM) to recover additional water from the desalination brine.

Where Our Innovators Operate