By Desalegn Tegegne and Yonas Tafesse
Governments across Sub-Saharan Africa are prioritizing irrigation expansion to enhance food security and build climate resilience. Increasingly, the focus is on private-sector engagement and farmer-led groundwater irrigation.
In Ethiopia, where rain-fed smallholder agriculture propels the economy, irrigation potential is significant, with more than 3.5 million hectares of irrigable land and 123 billion cubic meters of water for irrigation. To transform this resource into tangible benefits, the Ethiopian government and its development partners have prioritized solar-powered irrigation pumps. Policy measures, including the removal of import taxes on solar irrigation pumps, support this transition.
Clean energy technologies
“Solar-powered pumps offer a low-cost and environmentally friendly alternative to motor pumps,” said Amare Haileslassie, a Principal Researcher at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). Research also suggests that investing in solar irrigation can profit smallholders in food security, nutritional diversity and alleviating poverty.
To address the challenges of underperforming agriculture in Ethiopia, IWMI and its partners introduced viable solutions nearly a decade ago. These include piloting solar pumps, developing and promoting business models, bundling agricultural inputs and services, and providing capacity-building trainings on solar-powered irrigation technologies.
A notable intervention is the Growth for the Future project, which piloted 30 solar pumps in collaboration with Farm Africa and other partners, targeting model farmers in selected districts of the Oromia and Central Ethiopia regions. While these efforts contributed to improving food security and income for farmers in a limited number of locations, the innovation did not achieve the widespread adoption initially anticipated. One key barrier was the lack of access to finance for smallholders. This highlights a gap in promoting solar-based innovation bundles through well-organized public-private partnership (PPP) frameworks, the dissemination of best practices, and the scaling up of technologies in areas where they are most needed.
Making the case for solar-based innovation
In 2022, IWMI, through the CGIAR Initiative on Diversification in East and Southern Africa (Ukama Ustawi), with support from Nature-Based Solutions for Sustainable and Inclusive Development program, looked at the food and nutritional security of smallholder farmers. IWMI adopted a climate-resilient, water-secure, and socially inclusive approach to achieve its goals.
IWMI and Green Scene PLC (a solar pump supplier) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate the provision of solar pumps through a cost-sharing mechanism to model farms found in the Oromia, Sidama and Central Ethiopia regions where groundwater, sunshine and fertile land are abundant. IWMI also conducted trainings on bundled technologies (solar pumps, water allocation, seed, vermicompost, inorganic fertilizers, and credit), PPP frameworks, and financial matters.
“The IWMI approach has promoted a sense of ownership and familiarity with bundled agricultural inputs and services to allow farmers to select the best combinations,” said Shitu Wondimagegn, Deputy Head of South Sodo Agriculture Office in the Central Ethiopia Region.
Forty model farms received solar pumps in August 2024.
Aman Gemeda, a farmer from from the Oromia Region, said: “My agricultural activity is on a bigger scale and I have secured enough food and income for myself and my family after working hard during the September to November cropping season”.
IWMI and partners are distributing an additional 24 solar pumps to farmers in the four regions.
Endale Umas is a 32-year-old farmer in Sidama Region. Following the death of his father, he was the only one supporting his sisters and mother by farming 2 ha of family farmland.
“I have finalized preparations to farm cabbage and tomato on the family land through the new farming system and have plans to harvest a $ 4000 worth agricultural yield in early March 2025,” said Umas. He also plans to purchase another solar pump on his own and upscale his farming.
Aster Bezabih, 55, a mother of eight children, is the only woman to benefit from the solar pump distribution. In 2023, she was cultivating fruits and vegetables on her 1.5 ha of land using diesel-powered irrigation, but stopped due tosky-rocketing diesel prices.
“The solar pump is a dream come true for me and my family and we are eagerly awaiting the fruits of our hard work after planting onions, carrots, and watermelons on our farmland,” said Bezabih.
Haileslassie underscored that there are plans to use these farms as ‘living labs’ to bundle and package technologies, co-develop scaling pathways with stakeholders, and leverage support from the Science for Impact CGIAR 2025-2030 Program to maximize impact.