Issue #17. How Paul Zaake’s AgriShare App is Helping Farmers in Rural Uganda to Grow Crops All Year Round With Solar-Powered Irrigators.

In 2023, Ms Zulaika Nakalembe tried tomato farming on a quarter of an acre and made a terrible loss. The loss was largely due to a lengthy dry season that didn't give her crops a chance of survival. Dejected by the experience, Ms Zulaika abandoned farming altogether for a year until she heard of AgriShare from fellow farmers. 

She decided to try farming again, hoping to use AgriShare’s for-hire irrigation pumps as her trump card. She talked to an AgriShare agent, who told her the pump would cost shs 10,000  ($3) to rent per day. 

This was a good fee, but she realized she would need to spend a further shs 10,000  ($3) on fuel per hour, which skyrocketed her required investment to shs 50,000 ( $17) per day because she would need to irrigate for at least four hours, two in the morning and two in the evening. 

This was not feasible on her side, and she almost left. Until the agent proposed the use of solar irrigators, which would save her almost 70% while irrigating her produce for a full day. Solar-powered irrigation pumps would cost Ms Zulaika shs 20,000  ($6)to rent for a full day and no fuel costs. She jumped at the idea and paid for five days.

Using AgriShare’s solar-powered irrigation pumps, she increased her farmland to half an acre, and she yielded very good produce at the end of the season. AgriShare is the brainchild of Paul Zaake.  

Paul launched AgriShare in 2022. Growing up in rural Rakai, a district 200 km south of the capital, Kampala, Paul saw the problems farmers experienced first-hand.“Many people in Uganda rely on agriculture for income and food,” Paul tells ClimateOS Africa. ‘However, we lag in terms of productivity.” 

He estimates that whereas someone could earn up to USD 10,000 per acre in the USA, someone growing the same crops on a similarly sized plot of land in Uganda may struggle to make even 10% of that. 

“There are a lot of factors that cause this productivity disparity. For example, lack of finances, proper seedlings or even lack of equipment. Many of these bottlenecks have been handled by different stakeholders, but there is a big gap in access to vital resources.”  

Paul argues that farmers will never achieve true productivity unless they use machinery. “According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), only 30% of Uganda’s farmland is utilized. In many countries across the world, farmers grow crops on large acreages, while in Uganda, this isn't possible unless one deploys machinery. Manual labour can only take you so far. We have the potential to be a net exporter of agricultural produce not only in the region, but also across the world, but we are far from it.This is why we built AgriShare.” 

AgriShare is a digital platform based in Uganda that connects farmers with underutilized agricultural resources such as land, farm workers, tractors, and irrigation systems. The platform allows farmers to rent or hire these resources at affordable prices, making it easier for them to access essential equipment and services. 

AgriShare is particularly noted for its role in providing access to irrigation equipment, which helps farmers irrigate crops more sustainably and affordably. From 2022, AgriShare aims to empower smallholder farmers and contribute to sustainable agricultural practices.  

“A person who owns the resource (land or machinery) lists it on our platform, while the person who needs the resource will look at the resources available and their prices, then choose what works best for them. However, we know some farmers do not have smartphones, so we have call centres in multiple regions across Uganda  to cater for these.”

AgriShare has grown to 79,000 users and over 4,000 listings. 

One of the most common listings on AgriShare is irrigation pumps. Irrigation is becoming increasingly common in Uganda's agriculture due to the need to address challenges posed by climate change, such as erratic rainfall and prolonged droughts, which negatively impact crop yields and food security. 

By enabling year-round farming, irrigation helps farmers mitigate unpredictable weather patterns and improve productivity. Additionally, Uganda's government has prioritized irrigation as part of its National Irrigation Strategy, aiming to irrigate 1.5 million hectares within two decades to boost agricultural output and transition from subsistence to commercial farming. 

But the vast majority of irrigation pumps available on AgriShare were fuel-powered pumps, which are harmful to the environment. Fuel-powered irrigation pumps are harmful to the environment because they emit significant amounts of greenhouse gases, such as CO₂, contributing to climate change. Additionally, diesel pumps release fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and black carbon, which worsen air pollution and harm human health. Transitioning to cleaner alternatives like solar or electric pumps can mitigate these impacts. 

“Fuel-powered irrigation pumps are also expensive, just like Ms Zulaika Nakelembe found out. We decided to start focusing on solar-powered irrigation pumps to bring the cost down. To do this, we had to convince the owners of the fuel-powered irrigation pumps to purchase solar-powered ones and make them available on our platform, or secure partners who could help us to finance such a pilot.”

To pull off this transition, AgriShare turned to one of its earliest backers, Welthungerhilfe.

Welthungerhilfe is a German non-denominational and politically independent non-profit organization focused on development cooperation and humanitarian assistance. Founded in 1962, Welthungerhilfe works to combat hunger and poverty globally, with a strong presence in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. 

The organization supports projects in rural development, food security, and emergency aid, aiming to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger by 2030. It is headquartered in Bonn, Germany, and has implemented over 10,369 projects worldwide

 “When we shared the problem with Welthungerhilfe, they helped us to onboard a funding partner, Deutsche Postcode Lotterie, and we kicked off the project.”

Over the past year, the project achieved remarkable milestones in promoting sustainable agriculture through solar-powered irrigation. 

A total of 752 farmers adopted solar irrigation systems, benefiting from 20 newly available solar-powered units that enable efficient water use and reduce reliance on fuel. 

Furthermore, over 12,000 farmers were educated about the advantages of solar irrigation, empowering them with knowledge to improve productivity and adapt to climate change. This widespread adoption highlights the growing impact of the initiative in fostering environmentally friendly farming practices.

In addition to direct farmer engagement, AgriShare strengthened the ecosystem supporting solar irrigation. Key insights on solar irrigation for hire were shared with 225 stakeholders, fostering collaboration and awareness across the agricultural sector. 

Moreover, 67 equipment operators and transaction representatives enhanced their skills, ensuring reliable service delivery and long-term sustainability of the systems. These achievements demonstrated the project's success in driving both practical adoption and systemic support for solar-powered irrigation solutions. 

Despite the obvious financial benefits of using solar-powered pumps, convincing farmers to ditch fuel-powered ones was not easy. “We had to give most farmers a trial of the solar-powered pumps. Many were skeptical about their ability to do the job like the fuel-powered ones, but solar technology has advanced a lot. Once we got past the first hurdle of them trying out the solar-powered pumps, they adopted them because they could irrigate their crops for the whole day, rather than four hours with fuel-powered pumps”.  

AgriShare remains committed to ensuring transition to clean energy beyond just the solar-powered irrigation pumps. They have partnered with companies like Royal Milk, a prominent dairy company founded in 1995,  Karaa, a startup that designs and deploys electric bicycles and LUK Solar, a solar energy equipment supplier business mainly dealing in solar fridges and solar lights products.

“We brought in our solar-powered irrigators, while Karaa brought electric bicycles, Royal Milk with solar milk coolers, and LUK Solar brought in the solar fridges. Our mission was to work together to build a hub for climate-smart technologies, and this led to the Solar Innovation Hub. We want to be able to scale these technologies jointly, rather than individually. Solar technology has advanced so much that we can compete with the alternatives, and we want to use this hub to show the farmers and speed up adoption.”

The Solar Innovation Hub is located in Masindi, a district that is 214kms west of the Ugandan capital, Kampala.