KickStart International is a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

social enterprise A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners. Social enterprises ca ...

headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. KickStart designs and mass-markets climate-smart

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...

technology to

smallholder A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology ...

farmers in

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

, in order to enable a transition from

subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...

to commercial irrigated agriculture. Donor funds are used to design the irrigation pumps, establish supply chains, demonstrate and promote the pumps, and educate farmers on the benefits and methods of small-scale irrigation.

Background

Food supply across

sub-Saharan Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the African co ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

is highly unstable due to its unpredictable climate and water reserves. Only 6% of Africa's cultivated land is irrigated, limiting the volume of crops that can be grown out of season, but increased access to irrigation systems stands to increase food productivity by up to 50%.

History

KickStart was founded in 1991 by Dr. Martin Fisher and Nick Moon. Fisher first went to Kenya on a

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

to study the Appropriate Technology Movement, where he met Moon, who was in Kenya with the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). The two worked closely together on a variety of development interventions, including building rural water systems, constructing schools, and creating job training programs. Out of frustration with traditional development models, Fisher and Moon developed an

alternative model Alternative modeling is a branch of the modeling industry that features models who do not conform to mainstream ideals of beauty. Alternative models are often niche-specific, with a personal style that represents subcultures like goth, steam ...

for poverty alleviation. Their model was based on a five-step process to develop, launch and promote simple money-making tools that poor entrepreneurs could use to create their own profitable businesses. Together, they founded ApproTEC, which later became KickStart International in 2005. Starting in 1998, KickStart began developing a line of manually operated irrigation pumps, designed to enable farmers to easily pull water from a river, pond, or shallow well, and pressurize it through a hose pipe to reach their crops. Through this small-scale technological intervention, farmer can harvest their crops year-round, facilitating a transition from rain-fed

subsistence farming Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...

to year-round commercial irrigated agriculture. The MoneyMaker Max can pressurize water to a total height of 50 feet, pushing it through a hose pipe as far as 200 m, and can irrigate as much as two acres of land.

Recognition

KickStart has received the following awards: Schwab Foundation's Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs (2003),

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

"Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls" (2012),

Forbes Magazine ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also repo ...

br>Impact 30 List
- World's leading social entrepreneurs (2011), Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability (2008), Social Capitalist Award Fast Company Magazine & the Monitor Group (2008), Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (2005), Gleitsman Award of Achievement (2003).

References

{{Reflist International charities Development charities based in the United States Social enterprises Charities based in Kenya Water-related charities Irrigation projects