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(Photo courtesy of IDEI)

Amitabha Sadangi's vision is to create the means for sustainable rural livelihood, empowering the poor to achieve food security, improved health and education, increased income and a stable and productive natural resource base. He has worked in rural development for more than 20 years, and has led the development of the signature technologies of International Development Enterprises India (IDEI). Amitabha's personal passion and commitment is to listen and learn from the poor about their ambitions and needs, and drives IDEI's pragmatic, market-driven and client-centered approach. In 2005 the Skoll Foundation presented Amitabha with the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, recognizing him as a social entrepreneur who is advancing systemic social change.

 

IDEI aims to distribute irrigation kits to 5 million families, spinning off successful products as business enterprises and keeping focused on innovation, alliances, and impact monitoring.
 
IDEI's mission is to improve the lives of the rural poor by developing and marketing affordable and sustainable agricultural technologies. One of its most significant attributes is its core ethos: treating poor farmers as customers who would buy affordable, effective products, rather than as objects of charity. As a result, IDEI has sold more than 450,000 foot-powered treadle pumps since the 1990s, which have helped owners double their annual income to more than $100 per year. That's a total economic gain of more than $45 million annually.

 

The organization still markets irrigation pumps, but it has diversified its products to serve poorer families and those living in areas where groundwater pumping is not environmentally appropriate. The most important innovation is the brand-named "KB drip," which at $1.50 is the cheapest form of irrigation technology available in India. Even the poorest households can grow produce in both dry and rainy seasons with this system. Farmers who use it usually sell their produce in local markets rather than to exploitative middlemen, which helps them build their small-plot enterprises into income sources to support their families. The system's modular assembly allows users to move up to the next technology level as they can afford it. Since IDEI introduced its drip irrigation kit in various sizes to markets in 2001, it has sold nearly 100,000 -- all of which have earned more than 100-percent net return on their investment within one year.

 

But IDEI has affected more than just those who use the irrigation technologies. It has decentralized the manufacturing, distribution, installation, and maintenance operations, passing them to a chain of local enterprises. In total, this system employs more than 20 manufacturers, 140 product distributors, and more than 1,400 retail points throughout India. All told, these enterprises collectively bring in more than $10 million annually. Over the long term, IDEI aims to develop partnerships to distribute irrigation kits to 5 million families, spinning off successful products as business enterprises and keeping IDEI focused on innovation, alliances, and impact monitoring.

 

A March 2006 study measuring the socio-economic impact of IDEI's irrigation technologies on 500 users found a notable shift from subsistence agriculture to profitable, small-scale commercial farming; an increase in family health and nutrition because vegetables are more readily available; and a considerable drop in migration to urban areas in search of employment. Twenty percent of users said they invest their additional earnings in their child's education, 15 percent said they've increased spending on their families' health, and more than 34 percent said they've reinvested part of their increased incomes back in agriculture.