Productive Use of Renewable Energy In Agricultural Value Chains (PURE.Ag)

Country: Rwanda
Project details
Services:
Access to finance
Capacity building
Climate-smart agriculture
Enterprise development
Crops:
Cereals
Fruits and vegetables

Productive Use of Renewable Energy In Agricultural Value Chains (PURE.Ag), 2023-2024

Donor: GIZ/EnDev via Mercy Corps

Goal

The objective of PURE.Ag is to support the development and testing of sustainable business models that enable smallholder farmers to enhance their productivity and increase their income through the use of renewable energy technologies.

What we do

The implementation of PURE.Ag will be led by a consortium headed by Mercy Corps, operating under its Energy 4 Impact platform (MC E4I), and comprising EUCORD.

The program will focus on the implementation of a Results-Based Financing (RBF) scheme, which will provide incentives to suppliers of solar-powered water pumps (SWPs) to develop and test business models that involve installment-based payments (such as pay-as-you-go and harvest-based payments). By doing so, PURE.Ag aims to address the affordability challenge associated with solar water pumps and make them more competitive when compared to diesel water pumps.

Through this initiative, we aim to empower smallholder farmers by providing them with access to affordable and reliable renewable energy solutions for their agricultural activities. By leveraging solar power, we can enhance irrigation systems, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and contribute to sustainable agricultural practices.

Accomplishments

  • Awareness and mobilization campaigns were conducted in all 6 districts of the project intervention area.
  • Training of financial institutions on solar irrigation system and project opportunities was conducted in October 2024.
  • Four contracts were signed between EUCORD and Irrigation service providers to establish irrigation systems for farmers with results-based financing mechanism.