HydroStream. Hybrid of hydoponics and responsive drip

Problem statement: Last-mile communities  face  various challenges i.e sporadic rainfall, high cost of farm inputs, soil degradation, limited agricultural land brought by urbanization and lately negative effects of climate change. These  have led to food insecurity, reduced income, lower livelihood and  poverty .

Solution:

“HydroStream”  has integrated hydroponics technology bey enabling growing of crop and fodder without use of soil but in inert media and nutrient solution. Integrating the artificial intelligent responsive technology. This drip is one of a kind since its functions on the principles of plant physiology and chemistry whereby it releases water to the plant root system only when the plant needs water. Hydrostream enables growing of any type of food crops even trees under any climatic condition including deserts.

Change Lives: Four times number of crops, threefold production, half  production cost,  return on investment of 2.31, 80% water save and reverse  climate change

10 Million people are facing the challenges above in Kenya while 92 Million in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has been one of the fastest growing economies in the world over the past several years, but climate change-linked problems have acted as a hindrance on the nation's growth prospects. Bangladeshis, especially women, are suffering due to these changes with drastic loss of crops, land, decrease in come which is also leading to internal migration to urban areas.

Hydroponics Africa Limited has come up with sustainable cost-effective modern method of farming named HydroStream. The adaptation of these innovations will enable farmers to grow all types of crops including leafy vegetables, fruits, herbs and tubers and reap the benefits mentioned above.A farmer can farm through out the year.  We have so far installed more than 8,200, transformed the lives of 41,000 especially women and the youth and marginalized communities and refugee centers; realized over 18,000 tonnes of food yield. This will not only improve their food security and livelihoods, but also enhance nutritional levels. Hydroponics systems can be easily integrated into existing value chains in Bangladesh and thus lead to increase in income for the farmers.

We work with small holder farmers, women, youth groups, refugees and marginalized communities in arid and semi-arid areas of Africa. This group  includes individuals who do not have access to land, or farming knowledge. They are critical stakeholders for us to engage in driving adoption of better farming practices leading to better socio-economic empowerment. 

We  empower women, youth to become social entrepreneurs. For the 41,000 people we have transformed 23,370 have been women while 13,120 have been youth, by understand their aspirations and enabling them to become self-reliant – taking care of their livelihood and nutrition levels. While working with the farmers we were able to identify their challenges such as water scarcity, sporadic rainfall patterns, high cost of farm inputs, harsh climatic conditions, limited land space etc and thus ensuring that the we can provide relevant guidance to the farmers.

Our idea focuses on downstream innovation and delivery to create a scalable, sustainable livelihood and nutrition ecosystem.  Pairing technical innovation with training, entrepreneurship, and financial linkages, this will create sustainable solution to the root cause of poverty and food insecurity in Bangladesh.

HydroStream uses cutting edge technology with one of its kind integrated artificial intelligent responsive drip . It is affordable and is user friendly, key advantages of using our system are:

• It saves up to 80% water
• Uses four times less land compared to conventional farming
• Four times higher production in 1m2 of area
• Non-dependence on rainfall agriculture
• Farming can be done through the year
• Any type of plant can be grown using the system including trees
• Life span of over 10 years 

Key Features

Use of inert media: We do not use soil to grow crops but rather we use inert media such as pumice, coco pit coconut chips. This is quite unique because we overcome the many challenges faced by conventional farmers who use soil to grow crops. We locally formulate our high-quality nutrients according to type of crop and water PH of various geographical areas. This ensures that the crops receive a balanced nutrient composition and farmers get tailor made nutrient formulation based on their water PH and temperatures.

Our designs support both urban farming like growing crops on walls, on roof tops, on balconies in kitchen gardens. Our systems are both manual and automated using solar energy. The systems are less labour intensive. Our systems are also modular and portable supporting high number of crops per 1m2 with 30% higher crop growth rate. Our products are a solution to environmental degradation: Use of recycled plastic materials and coconut tree wastes. The innovation is also eco-friendly with zero residue deposits.

Intelligent responsive drip system: We use a high tech artificial intelligent responsive drip system that contains billions of microscopic holes that releases water to the plant root system only when the plant needs it. It operates under the principle of plant physiology and chemistry.

Sustainability: Its recurrent cost is extremely low i.e. less than 5% of the total installation cost with 10years life

Our hydroponic farming solutions are a solution to climate change: By the fact that the method of farming does not depend on rainfall and therefore not prone to the unpredictable rainfall patterns. The innovation survives extreme weather patterns in arid and semi-arid areas. By the fact that it uses 80% less water it does not strain the already depleted water resources. The technology can also be used to plant trees a solution to afforestation and absorption of co2 reversing desertification

It is designed to be used with limited resources  which are required for farming and it uses disruptive irrigation technology based on organic chemistry providing best solution to irrigation farming. Our solution can be used in urban as well rural settings, and is not labour extensive, thus is inclusive by design. In Bangladesh, scarcity of surface water has made groundwater an essential source to supplement dry season water demand to meet urban, industrial, and irrigation requirements, by reducing the use of under ground water for farming, our solution can have significant impact on protecting the water sources from depletion.

Our intelligent integrated drip  is a green technology that works organically to communicate with the plant. It is capable of growing plants in harshest of the environments, using minimal amount of water. The system is portable and can be relocated when the need arises. Other solution caters to the need of different farmers, and market demands:

Implementation approach: We will build Community Capacity to ensure that the hydroponic technology transfer is effectively handed over to the beneficiaries. Our approach will also ensure that communities have the skills and knowledge needed to independently run the hydroponic food production system an even scale it up. The capacity building focuses on Community Managed Food Security Systems; this will be a participatory forum that will be facilitated by both Hydroponics Africa Limited hydroponics experts. The beneficiaries both individual and institutional beneficiaries will be categorized according to their area of specialization and trained.

Our product will adderess the following problems

1. Water scarcity,

2.Food insecurity,

3. livelihood

4. Unemployment

5. Access to modern farming technology

6. Nutrition

7. Environmental degradation

8. Climate change

Currently 41,000

26250 WOmen which is 64%

14750 men which is 36%

13200 youths which is 32%

Key Milestones

2015 to date 2019: Installed 8200 systems benefiting 41,000 people

2019: Expanded into seven countries

2019: Contracted by Welthunger Hilfe to install 300 hydroponic systems for refugees in Darfur, Sudan

One year: 12,500

Five years: 86,550

One year Goals

• Install at least 2,500 units and benefit 12,500 people
• Train 10,000 youth and women on hydroponic system
• Reach out to 4,000 refugees
• Integrate aquaponics system in hydroponic and responsive drip system
• Enhance our contract farming model

Five years Goals

• Increase farmers income by increasing their return on investment from 2.4x to 6.1x
• Ensure food security to 1Million households
• Train 250,000 youths and women
• Save 5 Billion litres of water
• Increase forest cover by 10>#/span###
• Expand to 20 countries

One year barriers

• Lack of standardized government policies on hydroponics
• Low awareness and knowledge of the technology
• Financial limitations

Five years barriers

• Unfavourable Taxation policies

• Increase community awareness and sensitization
• Establish transfer of knowledge platforms
• Enhance partnerships and collaborations
• Lobby to the government

52 Employees spread

Full time  32

Part Time  18

Contractors   2

1. We have a board of directors with respectable personalities including members

2. We are an alumni and member of Kenya Climate Innovation Centre

3 Peter Chege: CEO & Founder: Bsc Analytical Chemistry, Hydroponic Award winner 15 years of experience in agribusiness

4. Paul Kamau: Program Manager: MBA, Bcom, CPA(K), 14 years of experience

5.We have a team of highly qualified and experienced agronomists

6. We have a team of highly qualified and experienced enginners

1. UN -World Food Programme-Project Implementation Partner

2. USAID-Project Implementation Partner

2. Welthunger Hilfe-Project Implementation Partner

3. Dubai Expo 2020-Project Implementation Partner

4. Climate Circle-Climate Change Adisory

5. Aqua For All-Project Implementation Partner

6. Kenya Climate Innovation Centre-Business AND Climate Change Advisory

Business Model: Mix of Cash, credit and contract farming

Funding Model: Mix of Equity and Donor Financing

Equity financing through ploughing back of profits

• We are looking to expand into blue ocean markets and need funding support for that
• Our vision is to feed the world through a portfolio of sustainable hydroponic farming methods, creating enduring value, abundance, and opportunities to all. To solve both food and environmental crisis especially in countries with need. We see this challenge as an avenue for us to increase our impact and create a more food secure world.
• Transform the lives of women and youth in Banglades

• Development partners. We would like them to buy hydroponic systems on behalf of small scale farmers
• Development partners. We would like them sponsor women and youth in our hydroponic training institute
• International NGOs. For community awareness and sensitization
• Foreign Embassies: To fastrack our expansion strategy
• Social entrepreneurs: To provide grant or convertible loan to farmers
• Financial Institutions: To provide agribusiness loan facilities to farmers
• Chain of supermarkets and off take buyers: To provide market for our farmer’s farm produce
• Private entities: To establish international distributorship partnerships