Sana Kishan Agricultural Cooperative Ltd organized the second iteration of ‘Small Farmer Summit 2019’ on 28th February and 1st March. This summit saw the participation of around 1,000 people, including commercial farmers, representatives from organizations and exhibitionists. The two-day program that took place at Hotel Yak and Yeti was one of the biggest platforms to promote and empower small farmers in Nepal. It also aimed at addressing issues that the rural farmers are facing while discussing possible solutions to them. Besides, the event was an opportunity for many exhibitionists like Gham Power to sell and promote their products amongst potential customers.

As one of the participants, we got the opportunity to demonstrate our product catering to small farmers.  We promoted solar water pump which is our hit product in the Terai belt of Nepal. Also, we also launched our new product- Mini Solar Water Pump- which is catered to the small-holder farmers in rural Nepal who are into farming in comparatively lesser area than that of commercial farmers.

The summit helped us get an insight into the farmers through the interactions with them. We understood about the technology they are currently using and the problem they are facing in using it. Such knowledge is critical as it paves a way to the development of new systems that efficiently tackle their issue, and sometimes not even the new systems, but also the process that can make the entire system effective.

Throughout the program, there were quite a few people who were interested in our system. Majority of them had never heard about the concept of solar leading to some doubt and disbelief. However, there were others who had experienced the value that it provides; these people were the one advocating for our solar water pumps.

Even though we were expecting more participants from Terai, there were people from the Hilly area who were also interested in our solar system for lifting the water from the ground level to the high altitude. Rather than fixated toward farming, they were also interested in providing drinking water in the areas with high elevation. Their interest shows the need for solar water pumping, be it in farming or to providing drinking water, be it in the Terai or Hilly area of Nepal. Overall, these experiences led us to believe that there is more to the potential of the solar water panel than what we initially thought.