of equity to SunCulture, a solar irrigation company is to add 258k new customers in Kenya (LMIC and FCAS) and Uganda (LDC and FCAS) in the next five years. This is expected to provide more reliable and efficient water supply for irrigation, leading to enhanced agricultural productivity and greater income generation for farmers.
SDG 2 – Double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers.
Expected impact: It is estimated that 258k pumps will be utilised by smallholder farmers in rural Kenya and Uganda. 32% live on or below the international poverty line and 52% of farmers are first-time users. This will also provide reliable water supply to improve the climate resilience of agricultural communities by reducing the risk of food shortages.
SDG 13 – Avoid and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Expected impact: Up to 357k tCO2e of emissions could be displayed each year through the displacement of diesel systems¹.
¹This assumption is based off SunCulture’s existing customer base – 42% of customers previously had diesel pumps, with each pump displaced resulting in 3.3 t CO2e per year of avoided emissions.
Challenge: Carbon credits markets are nascent in Kenya and Uganda.
Channel: Demonstrate and build a track record for carbon credits as a revenue stream to keep the upfront cost of pumps affordable for customers.
Outcome: Attract more private sector capital to businesses that use carbon credits.
Resilience: InfraCo Africa will work with SunCulture to assess the climate risks facing farmers, building on the crop resilience training programme already implemented by SunCulture for some of their customers.
Improve climate resilience for farmers through providing more reliable or more efficient water supply for irrigation that will lead to enhanced agricultural productivity and higher output quality, at a time when temperatures are rising, and food scarcity is likely to also rise.
SunCulture identified challenges around increasing their proportion of female customers and female farmers benefitting from their crop resilience training. Gender-disaggregated data from a survey conducted on a pilot training will help provide insights on barriers and opportunities (products and services), and will inform the company’s gender commitments for this project in 2024.
As part of the due diligence process, 13 improvements were identified which are now reflected in the Project Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP).
