"I Am Not Worried About My Children's Future Any More" 

“Four years ago, I thought poverty was my destiny, a chain that confined me, and was going to confine my family too,” says Nazrul Islam, whose family of five lived on less than a dollar a day prior to learning about IDE’s treadle pump program in Bangladesh. Because he could not properly irrigate his family’s small plot of land, Nazrul was forced to provide for his family from infrequent work as a day laborer.

When he learned about IDE’s inexpensive treadle pump from a relative, Nazrul applied for a micro-loan to cover the costs of the pump and drilling a well on his land, about $20. Results were immediate. He was able to grow eggplant, cabbage, onions, peppers, and tomatoes during the dry season between September and March, earning about $110 each trip to the local market. The family rice plot now produces enough rice to feed the family 11 months out of the year. He was able to repay the loan and buy additional land within the first year of use.

In addition, Nazrul replaced his thatch roof with a corrugated tin roof and added two goats and several chickens to his family’s livestock. But one of the most important uses for his additional income is the ability to keep all of his children in school. “I hope that one of my sons will go on to school in Dhaka and get a good government job,” he says. His additional income has also allowed his daughters to remain in school, which is uncommon in the village.

The change in Nazrul’s life was so profound that he decided to start a business distributing the treadle pump. He sells about 35 pumps a year, earning a commission of about $2.50 for each treadle pump system sold.

“By adopting the techniques of low cost irrigation technology with an entrepreneurial skill, I was able to change my life,” he says, “I was elected as a Union Parishad Member in my community, and got involved in social development activities to share my experience to help other people struggling against poverty. I am not worried about the future of my children any more, and neither is anyone else in my community with the help of the treadle pump and IDE.”

Established in 1984, IDE's Bangladesh program is the oldest of IDE's eight existing country programs. Early on, IDE came across this locally invented treadle pump, and helped to refine the design, initiate a private-sector supply chain, and actively market the pump to smallholders. Now the treadle pump market has 72 manufactures, 1205 pump dealers, and 4000 well drillers. More than 1.3 million treadle pumps and 200,000 hand-operated rower pumps have been sold through this private network, with each estimated to generate an average of $100 in additional annual income for small farmers.

This story is told on the website of International Development Enterprises, an international non-profit organization that has been working with poor farmers in developing countries for more than 25 years, promoting a market-based approach that has enabled 17 million people to permanently escape poverty. IDE uses business principles to facilitate unsubsidized market systems in which the rural poor can participate effectively as micro-entrepreneurs and earn income, helping small farmers progress from subsistence agriculture to commercial farming.  IDE, which is based in Colorado, USA, also works in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Founder Paul Polak tells many of the stories of IDE’s work in Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail, published by Berrett-Kohler Publishers in February 2008. His work inspired the exhibition described in Designing for the "other 90%" - low cost solutions for the world's poor.

In the May/June 2008 edition of World Ark Magazine, Clarissa Barnes clarifies the origins of the treadle pump distributed by IDE. She indicates the treadle pump was invented by her husband, Gunnar Barnes, when he was working in Bangladesh with Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service, a program of Lutheran World Service/World Service (Geneva) in 1980. According to the 1983 RDRS report, requests for the treadle pump regularly come from all over the world and in 1983, requests had been received and fulfilled from Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan, Kampuchea, India, Thailand, Philippines, and China. By 1984, 27,000 pumps had been sold in Bangladesh alone, she said.

 


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