What is the name of your organization?
Entrepreneurs Du Monde Pteah Baitong Co., Ltd
What is the name of your solution?
Irrigation as a Service
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Solar-powered Irrigation as a Service for smallholder rice farmers
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
Cambodia
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
—
What specific problem are you solving?
So the core challenge Pteah Baitong addresses is the pervasive issue of unreliable and costly irrigation for smallholder farmers in rural Cambodia. A significant majority, over 80%, struggle with either increasingly unpredictable rainfall due to climate change or the financial burdens of diesel-powered pumps. This directly impacts their productivity, income stability, and overall food security, affecting millions within Cambodia's predominantly agricultural rural population. Globally, this water scarcity in agriculture affects billions. Our solution directly counters these limitations by providing affordable and reliable solar-powered irrigation, offering a sustainable and empowering alternative to traditional, unsustainable methods.
What is your solution?
Our solution is a community-focused, solar-powered pumping station. Pteah Baitong builds, owns, and operates the centralized solar-powered pumping stations that distribute water through a network of interconnected canals and reservoirs to individual farms. Farmers access this reliable irrigation via a service fee, eliminating the burden of owning, maintaining and operating their own pumps which is costly and labor intensive. Key technologies include solar panels, submersible pumps on floating platforms, and remote control and monitoring systems. We provide clean, affordable, and dependable water source, allowing farmers to concentrate on cultivation.
Video here: https://youtu.be/N0qii3g_Vlc?si=4EKkPlBRMWHyLRJt
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our target population is primarily smallholder farmers in rural Cambodia, particularly those with limited landholdings (typically 0.5 to 2 hectares) and low incomes, often living below or just above the poverty line. They rely heavily on agriculture for their livelihoods. They are underserved by unreliable rain-fed agriculture and the unaffordable costs of diesel pumps. They lack access to finance for irrigation technology and face insufficient infrastructure, and high vulnerability to climate change.
Our solution directly addresses these challenges by building and operating solar-powered irrigation systems, providing a reliable and affordable water source. This empowers them to break free from the constraints of rain-fed agriculture, increase their yields and income, build more resilient infrastructure and prosperous futures.
