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KickStart International is an award-winning nonprofit social enterprise that designs and mass-markets manually-powered irrigation pumps to poor rural farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. KickStart uses donor funds to design the pumps, establish the supply chains, demonstrate and promote the pumps, and educate farmers about the benefits and methods of irrigation.〔KickStart - About Us. http://www.kickstart.org/about-us/〕 ==Overview== KickStart is a non-profit organization specializing in irrigation technology targeted to improve the harvests of sub-Saharan Africa’s impoverished smallholder farmers. When it comes to food supply, Africa faces enormous instability due to unpredictable climate and water reserves.〔What Is the Irrigation Potential for Africa? A Combined Biophysical and Socioeconomic ApproachInternational Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) 2010 http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/ifpridp00993.pdf〕 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%.〔Africa’s innovations: 15 ideas helping to transform a continent. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/aug/26/africa-innovations-transform-continent〕 The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations believes that locally produced low-cost treadle pumps could boost security in the region.〔Needed by African farmers: simple water pumps. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom/highlights/2001/010103-e.htm 〕 KickStart’s strategy is aligned with this philosophy as the organization designs and sells durable yet affordable “MoneyMaker” branded irrigation pumps. Starting in 1998, KickStart began developing this line of manually operated irrigation pumps which allow farmers to easily pull water from a river, pond, or shallow well, and pressurize it through a hose pipe to reach their crops. The MoneyMaker Max, for example, 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.〔Michael D. Galvin, Lora Iannotti. (2015) Social Enterprise and Development: The KickStart Model. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 26421-441. Online publication date: 1-Apr-2015.〕 The low-cost ($70 and $150) pumps are purchased by poor farmers who use them to irrigate their plots, enabling them to move from rain-fed subsistence farming to year-round commercial irrigated agriculture.〔Africa’s Coming Revolution. Isabel Coleman. August 8, 2012. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/08/africas-coming-agricultural-revolution/260867/〕 KickStart sells the pumps instead of giving them away as Co-Founder Martin Fisher believes it kills local initiative and that people don’t necessarily appreciate things that are given.〔PBS. Fighting Poverty in Kenya by Selling Water Pumps to Poor Farmers. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues-july-dec10-kickstart_07-13/〕 Instead, Fisher believes selling the pumps promotes entrepreneurship instead of dependence.〔Africa’s Coming Revolution. Isabel Coleman. August 8, 2012. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/08/africas-coming-agricultural-revolution/260867/〕 KickStart has offices in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, and Ghana, but works in 18 countries throughout Africa through partner organizations.〔KickStart Annual Report http://annualreport.kickstart.org/2014/where-and-how-we-work/where-we-work/〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「KickStart International」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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