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CALTECH E 105 - THE ROWER PUMP PHASE

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1 HOW IDE INSTALLED 1.3 MILLION TREADLE PUMPS IN BANGLADESH BY ACTIVATING THE PRIVATE SECTOR : THE PRACTICAL STEPS Paul Polak THE ROWER PUMP PHASE IDE’s work in manual irrigation in Bangladesh began in 1984 not with the Treadle Pump, but with the Rower Pump, designed by George Klassen as a volunteer in Bangladesh for the Mennonite Central Committee. UNICEF had introduced some 90,000 cast iron #6 pumps for drinking water, and farmers started to use some of them for irrigation. Because the Rower Pump used a rowing motion instead of the bent arm action of typical handpumps, it was much more efficient biomechanically for long term pumping. Treadle Pumps, which were beginning to be introduced in Northern Bangladesh, were also more efficient, but IDE felt that Rower Pumps were easier to manufacture in volume with high quality. The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) had installed some 2,000 Rower Pumps over several years, and IDE was impressed with the contribution that affordable small plot irrigation could make to improving the poverty and hunger of small farm families. We felt that if 2,000 Rower Pumps could produce a positive impact in opening opportunities for small farmers work their way out of poverty, 50,000 Rower Pumps could produce an exponentially greater positive impact. We decided to try to accomplish this by harnessing the potential in modern marketing methods by adapted to the rural context of Bangladesh. Steps in Scaling Up Rower Pump Adoption 1. Initial Organizational Meeting. IDE convened a two-day meeting of all the key players in the preceding Rower Pump project, to brainstorm about how to go forward. We set a goal of installing 20,000 Rower Pumps a year within three years. Funding for the project was obtained from CIDA Canada in the amount of approximately 200,000 (Can) per year for three years. 2. Removal of Subsidies. Shortly after setting up an office in Bangladesh, IDE established a regular Manual Irrigation Coordination Committee meeting attended by all the organizations promoting manual irrigation in Bangladesh. Some of these agencies provided free well-drilling and other incentives to lower the effective cost of Rower Pumps for poor farmers. Because this undercut the private sector marketplace, IDE used the coordinating committee as a forum to promote the gradual removal of all subsidies for manual irrigation pumps, and this was successfully accomplished over a three-year period. 3. Centrally Controlled or Free Market Manufacturing? For the manufacturing of the first 2,000 Rower Pumps, the Mennonite Central Committee had worked with a2local technical school and training center, Mirror Agricultural Workshop and Training Services, (MAWTS), headed by Ikrimullah, a dynamic Bangladeshi engineer. As the demand for Rower Pumps increased, we were faced with a dilemma. MAWTS was interested in doing all the manufacturing, aided by small workshops started by its students. IDE, on the other hand, wanted to continue the participation of MAWTS and its students, but at the same time to open the market to competition. This resulted in a stalemate for the first year and a half, after which other players gradually entered the market. 4. Quality Control IDE implemented 100% quality control procedures in the initial phases of expanded Rower Pump promotion, to ensure that initial installations worked effectively. Full time IDE field technicians made sure that pumps were installed properly with no leaks, and made follow-up service calls. 5. Facilitating a Dealer/Pump Installer Network. IDE selected village dealers who sold Rower Pumps with a reasonable margin, and trained well drillers to install them correctly. At the same time, marketing staff who worked for IDE called on small farmers and encouraged them to buy Rower Pumps, and when a sale was made, it was made through the private sector dealer. 6. Rower Pump Marketing Promotion Activities. During the period from 1984-86, the foundation was laid for the rural mass marketing approaches that were eventually implemented for the Treadle Pump. A large billboard portraying a farmer operating a Rower Pump was placed on the main road from the airport in Dhaka, where it was seen by policy makers, government officials and businessmen on their way home from the airport. Calendars, leaflets, and posters were designed and distributed. Rower Pump demonstrations were put on. As a result of all of these activities, Rower Pump sales passed 1,000 a month in the third year of the program. 7. Rower Pumps or Treadle Pumps? In 1986 IDE was contacted by the Bangladesh Tobacco Company a parastatal organization that contracted with small farmers to produce tobacco. This company provided agricultural inputs and technology on credit, and was interested in included Rower Pumps as part of its inputs package. But there was a catch. Because there was a great deal of farmer interest in Treadle Pumps, and the company wanted to include Treadle Pumps in the program. In the end, IDE agreed to install 75 Rower Pumps and 75 Treadle Pumps for farmers under contract to the company. After a season of use, the farmers reported a strong preference for the Treadle Pump. They said that it was cheaper, easier to operate than the Rower Pump, and produced more water. After looking into it and thinking it over, we decided that the farmers were right. IDE was now faced with a major identity crisis. We had seen ourselves as a Rower Pump organization, and even carried pictures of Rower Pumps on the sides of our two vehicles. Were we a Rower Pump organization, or an organization dedicated to opening access to affordable irrigation water to small poor farmers?3We decided we were dedicated to affordable small plot irrigation water for poor farmers, and changed our focus from Rower Pumps to Treadle Pumps. This meant we were willing to change again new better option came up. INSTALLING 1.3 MILLION TREADLE PUMPS THROUGH THE LOCAL PRIVATE SECTOR 1. Original Work Done by Rangpur/Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) Gunnar Barnes, a Norwegian volunteer for RDRS, and his colleagues had designed the Treadle Pump on the sensible notion that a small farmer should be able to buy a manual irrigation pump for a price equivalent to the value of a sack of rice. The pump was tested in the shallow aquifers of these two provinces in northern Bangladesh, and farmers liked it. RDRS supported the development of 4 workshops that manufactured it, and put on demonstrations


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CALTECH E 105 - THE ROWER PUMP PHASE

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