SunCulture designs and sells solar-powered irrigation systems that make it cheaper and easier for smallholder farmers to grow high-value fresh fruits and vegetables. The company’s AgroSolar Irrigation Kit increases farmer profit by $14,000 per acre per year — based on fuel, fertilizer, and labor savings and crop yield increases.
SunCulture’s Co-Founders Samir Ibrahim (CEO) and Charlie Nichols (CTO) met in New York and launched SunCulture out of the New York University Stern Venture Competition. The company launched in mid-2013 and has since installed 500+ systems across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia and South Sudan. SunCulture was recently awarded $2m in funding from USAID’s Powering Agriculture program to support scaling up across the East African region.
By 2030, the World Bank projects Africa’s farmers will create a trillion dollar agribusiness market if they can access the capital, knowledge and technology necessary to increase yields — which trail world averages by as much as 50%.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest prevalence of undernourishment in the world — almost one in every four people is undernourished. However, Africa possesses 50% of the world’s unused arable land and can feed itself — and help feed the world too. In Kenya, where SunCulture operates, 75% of the labor force is engaged in agriculture and the sector contributes 30% of GDP.
Smart farming technologies like SunCulture’s solar powered irrigation systems — which increase yields by up to 300% with 80% less water than traditional farming methods and use clean and affordable solar energy — present an exciting opportunity to sustain-ably address the yield gap on millions of smallholder African farms to improve food security and enhance economic growth.
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SunCulture designs and sells solar-powered irrigation systems that make it cheaper and easier for smallholder farmers to grow high-value fresh fruits and vegetables. The company’s AgroSolar Irrigation Kit increases farmer profit by $14,000 per acre per year — based on fuel, fertilizer, and labor savings and crop yield increases.
SunCulture’s Co-Founders Samir Ibrahim (CEO) and Charlie Nichols (CTO) met in New York and launched SunCulture out of the New York University Stern Venture Competition. The company launched in mid-2013 and has since installed 500+ systems across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia and South Sudan. SunCulture was recently awarded $2m in funding from USAID’s Powering Agriculture program to support scaling up across the East African region.
By 2030, the World Bank projects Africa’s farmers will create a trillion dollar agribusiness market if they can access the capital, knowledge and technology necessary to increase yields — which trail world averages by as much as 50%.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest prevalence of undernourishment in the world — almost one in every four people is undernourished. However, Africa possesses 50% of the world’s unused arable land and can feed itself — and help feed the world too. In Kenya, where SunCulture operates, 75% of the labor force is engaged in agriculture and the sector contributes 30% of GDP.
Smart farming technologies like SunCulture’s solar powered irrigation systems — which increase yields by up to 300% with 80% less water than traditional farming methods and use clean and affordable solar energy — present an exciting opportunity to sustain-ably address the yield gap on millions of smallholder African farms to improve food security and enhance economic growth.More
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