World Ark Magazine - March/April 2008 - (Page 35) 8 9 10 1 1 12 11 Continue to learn from your customers. About ten years ago, the low-cost drip-irrigation technology we designed and field-tested in Nepal was ready for marketing. By this time we had a good sales force and several hundred hill farmers within 30 kilometers of Pokhara purchased low-cost drip systems. But sales didn’t go up at all in the second year. In fact, our field staff were dismayed to learn that many farmers who bought low-cost drip systems used only a quarter of the systems they purchased. When they interviewed the farmers who had bought drip systems, our field staff learned these farmers had no experience with the intensive horticulture required to grow off-season vegetables. In fact, there was a widely held belief that it was impossible to grow vegetables in winter in the Pokhara region. Our field staff convinced me that we would never be able to sell low-cost drip systems until we trained farmers how to use these systems to grow off-season vegetables. We introduced field-based training programs in intensive horticulture, and sales took off quickly. 12 persevere Stay positive: don’t be distracted by what other people think. Twelve years ago I was championing two affordable irrigation technologies. The first was an animal-powered treadle pump, which produced as much water as a small diesel pump. A five-horsepower diesel pump cost $500 then, and I knew we could produce a bullock pump for $125, a pump that “burned” fodder instead of diesel. So I kept pressing until we had a marketable reliable bullock pump ready to go. At the same time, I was convinced that a small-plot drip-irrigation system that could be bought at about a fifth of the price of conventional drip would command huge global demand. People told me if there really were a need for either system, the market would have introduced them long ago. But I was convinced that millions of small-acreage farmers could earn big money from these irrigation systems. By the time the bullock pump was ready to sell, Chinese diesel pumps were available for $150 instead of $500, and the bullock pump was no longer cost-competitive. I had no regrets. We had good reasons to develop the bullock pump, and so we simply put the product on a back burner. The global market for low-cost drip irrigation, however, looks to be huge. I think at least 10 million poor families will buy a system. Most breakthrough solutions to important problems, such as Henry Ford’s $500 automobile and Jobs and Wosniak’s $2,000 computer, came about because one or two stubborn entrepreneurs saw new solutions to old problems and persisted until their dream became a reality. Why should solving the problem of poverty be any different? www.heifer.org March/April 2008 | WORLD ARK 35 http://www.heifer.org
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