Tech Thursday: New solutions bring water to small-scale farmers in China and India

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Tech Tuesday (exceptionally Tech Thursday!) is an ongoing series profiling the Forum’s Technology Pioneers. The Tech Pioneers are companies that have been recognized by the Forum for groundbreaking and innovative approaches in tackling some of the world’s most wicked problems. Each week we will showcase one of the 2012 Tech Pioneers. You can learn more about the Technology Pioneer Programme on the Forum’s website.

Driptech designs revolutionary irrigation systems for small farmers in the developing world

Global climate change and the population explosion are combining forces to make water an increasingly scarce commodity. Today, the average person in the developing world only has access to 20% of the water that would have been available only a few generations ago. Conservation is the fastest and most economical way of sharing water resources more efficiently, and Driptech is breaking new ground in designing easy to build, high-end irrigation systems for farmers in the developing world who only need to irrigate a relatively small piece of land.

The Silicon Valley-based company, which also has offices in Pune (India) and Beijing (China), sees affordable irrigation as a crucial step in the fight against poverty. Driptech uses standard flexible tubing, which drips water directly on growing plants rather than relying on flood irrigation in which most of the water either seeps into the ground or evaporates before it reaches the plant. The idea is hardly revolutionary, but Driptech has pioneered a proprietary design that significantly reduces the hardware required and has automated the manufacturing process. These improvements reduce the start-up costs by 40% to 80% and produce systems that are longer lasting and more reliable than anything else that has hit the market so far. Driptech’s most significant contribution, however, is its decision to focus on a segment of the population that has been largely ignored until now and, yet, is increasingly critical to global development.

Driptech

Peter Frykman, Founder and CEO

Location: CA, USA

Number of Employees: 17

Year Founded: 2008

Driptech

2580 Wyandotte St. Suite B

Mountain View, CA 94043

USA

Telephone: +1 415 793 6735

info@driptech.com

www.driptech.com

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