BISO SMART IRRIGATION SYSTEM

Current studies have projected that practical irrigation done by most of the Smallholder Farmers in Malawi use treadle pumps, watering cans and gravity canals to make water management decisions.

Unfortunately, 80% of farmer experience:

1. Reduced Irrigation depths

2. Decrease Irrigated crop production

3. Labour Intensive

Note: It is costly for Large Commercial Farms to use Diesel powered water pumps, moreover there is a general interest to migrate to Renewable Energy Systems.

Especially for MEGA Farms the system will be Smart since the installed water pump will be controlled via Bluetooth/online and data is saved in the cloud and automatically synchronizes between web and app and Operation of the system will be with no or minimum manual intervention. 

Next to that, the operation will be within the controlled parameters, the plant itself will determine the degree of irrigation required. Various sensors viz; tensiometers, relative humidity sensors, rain sensors, temperature sensors to control the irrigation scheduling will be used for Large Commercial Farms own by Governments and Individuals. These sensors provide feedback to the controller to control its operation with regards to Initial Set Point of the system. one of the sensors will be placed in the root zone and actuates the opening of water flow alarm. The second sensor, located on the limit of the wetted zone, triggers the closing of water flow alarm. 

Invariably, with increasing competition across water-using sectors, there is a greater need for more efficient water use. Irrigation aims at supplying enough water to meet the crop water requirement. The FAO developed methodologies for computation of crop water requirement (FAO, 2002). The methods rely on estimating reference evapotranspiration from which is derived the crop evapotranspiration.

According to Malawi’s agricultural engineering, BISO-360 has recommended the Penman-Monteith method as the best performing method for estimating crop water requirement. The total amount of water required depends on the soil type. Different soil types have different water holding capacities as influenced by soil texture and structure. Irrigation scheduling is the process of determining when to irrigate and how much water to apply per irrigation. It is an important key to irrigation water management while ensuring optimum crop growth. It is based on daily water use of the crop, the water-holding capacity of the soil, and the lower limit of soil moisture for each crop and soil 

BISO-360 develops a Cheap but Self-Sufficient Irrigation System. The system is Integrated with a water pump that runs on Hybrid Renewable Energy System sustained by Biogas (methane) and Solar. It is a low-cost technology that upgrade and improve current water management ways to expand agricultural production. BISO-360 has also considered that an effective approach to water management and indeed technology dissemination is to follow a performance oriented approach.

Data collected to quantify performance indicators at a detailed scale as the farmers’ fields are essential for subsequent interventions. While such data is rarely available, it permits retrofitting new techniques and practices to the existing ones. A knowledge base of prevalent water management practices among farmers cultivating using the common smallholder irrigation technologies is important for interventions that can promote water savings and improve water productivity.

At a smallholder farmer level, the irrigation system incorporates Pivotal Projections encompassed with Sprinklers for even application of water. The irrigation system also attains a higher Value Proposition with regards to Environmental Impact Assessment since:

o It sustains ZERO Waste

o It is Eco-Friendly

o Waste to Energy

o Digester effluent is produced which is superior quality organic fertilizer.

The project regards energy sector. It aims at enhancing Malawi to aim for reduced dependence on hydro-electric power and opt for improved and self-sufficient hybrid renewable energy systems. The project has developed a BISO TECH that is used to power up an Irrigation System that runs on a Hybrid renewable energy system integrated with Biogas & Solar (BISO).

The project in the first place targets 500 smallholder farmers as a start-up in groups of 50. The company has worked on the research and development of prototypes that accommodates small holder farmers. At a later stage the product can be scared-up to cover up to 2000 hectors of land integrated with Pivotal Projection (Pivot Irrigation System).

The beneficiaries help us on traction & target market. Famers will be able to access 
affordable and self-sufficient smart irrigation system to make water management decisions since 80% of farmer experience:
1. Reduced Irrigation depths
2. Decrease Irrigated crop production
3. Labour Intensive 

The system has projected a payback period of 10 months with a work plan that depicts a total units of 10 irrigation systems to be sold at MWK3,000,000(Million Malawi Kwacha) each hence, making a profit of MWK824,000 on each system with respect to the production cost. Take note that, 500 target number of smallholder farmers for a start-up in groups of 50 has been drafted to make the system cost effective with an assumption that each will contribute MWK6,000 according to the monthly loan service per group. For a payback period of 10 months, every group is advised to service the loan at MWK300,000 (Three Hundred Kwacha only) divided by 50 smallholder farmers per group. Therefore, with a start-up cost of MWK13 million Short-Loan, BISO-360 will be able to pay-back in 10 months with a profit margin of MWK4,120,000 (Million Malawi Kwacha) and interest rate of 23.8%. Currently, BISO-360 is looking for MWK2,120,000 Million to carry out the research from Ideation stage to full functional business case development with respect to commercialization of the product. Upgrade and Improvement on the system will be done in this phase 4 together with experimentation and research. The project depicts associated activities that will be validated with the end User.

The only major barrier we have had was to identify a stable supplier of raw materials more especially the elements used in converting and fabrication of methane generators. We also had a challenge on the financial muscle to drive the project. The TEAM has mapped a proper implementation plan with regards to the need to upgrade, Improve and diversity from the current Irrigation Systems used to make water management decisions

We also noted that the community has a common interest to migrate to Renewable Energy Systems. It was also noted that our system would be more reliable since it combines Biogas and Solar hence water table rises at night, and farmer will be able to pump the water during the night using Biogas. They system also promote way more on winter cropping.

10 beneficiaries

We would want to implement the project Fully for the benefit of our immediate environment. Therefore as BISO 360, a Biogas and Solar Installation Company, we are looking for both Partnership and Grant that would propel commercialization of the project as a corporate level.

It is a system developed and manufactured in Malawi and a user would have the instructions in chichewa (local language).

There is also Potential for export

Note: water table rises at night hence you can pump the water at night using Biogas.

Note: The technology fills Up the GAP in the market since it is renewable and it sustains Winter Cropping

The technology fit in ahead of competition (Solar and Biogas) since it's Hybrid Renewable hence, it is more reliable and more efficient and we would only face solar providers and suppliers.

To sell not less than 100 units per year with  total Annual Sales: MWK76,000,000 in the 1st year = $74,000 (US Dollar)

Profit Projection: MWK23,500,000 = $22,900

With a Year on Year growth over next Five years of 30%

we took into consideration of the Technology enablement in Malawi

Therefore, we sustained a number of Upgrades during our system development. 

We also noted the need for improved irrigation systems (Upgrade & Diversify) which necessitates change of irrigation technology to BISO Smart Irrigation System (Renewable Energy). 

BISO-360 develops a BISO TECH System to power an irrigation System that is:

1. Cost Effective

2. Self Sufficient

3. Zero-Waste.

The system is Integrated with a water pump that runs on Hybrid Renewable Energy System sustained by Biogas (methane) and Solar.

Different practitioners measure water productivity differently. Agronomists measure the relationship between yield and evapotranspiration. Irrigation engineers are concerned with overall water-use efficiency in irrigation systems. Farmers are interested in yield obtained per gross water quantity applied to the field. It is difficult to reach a common agreement because the purpose and use of the values obtained is different. With the current scenario as highlighted in the Problem Statement have projected that practical irrigation done by most of the Smallholder Farmers in Malawi use watering Cans, treadle pumps and gravity canals to make water management decisions. 60-70% of water used for irrigation in such a way does not actually reach the crop roots. This results in reduced Irrigation depths and decrease Irrigated crop production, implying the need for improved irrigation systems. Invariably, with increasing competition across water-using sectors, there is a greater need for more efficient water use. Irrigation aims at supplying enough water to meet the crop water requirement. 

The FAO developed methodologies for computation of crop water requirement (FAO, 2002). The methods rely on estimating reference evapotranspiration from which is derived the crop evapotranspiration.

According to Malawi’s agricultural engineering, BISO-360 has recommended the Penman-Monteith method as the best performing method for estimating crop water requirement. The total amount of water required depends on the soil type. Different soil types have different water holding capacities as influenced by soil texture and structure. Irrigation scheduling is the process of determining when to irrigate and how much water to apply per irrigation. It is an important key to irrigation water management while ensuring optimum crop growth. It is based on daily water use of the crop, the water-holding capacity of the soil, and the lower limit of soil moisture for each crop and soil

o It sustains ZERO Waste

o It is Eco-Friendly
o Waste to Energy
o Digester effluent is produced which is superior quality organic fertilizer.
o The system is Integrated with a water pump that runs on Hybrid Renewable Energy System 
sustained by Biogas (methane) and Solar

BISO-360 develops a Cheap but Self-Sufficient Irrigation System. The system is Integrated with a water pump that runs on Hybrid Renewable Energy System sustained by Biogas (methane) and Solar. It is a low-cost technology that upgrade and improve current water management ways to expand agricultural production. BISO-360 has also considered that an effective approach to water management and indeed technology dissemination is to follow a performance oriented approach. Data collected to quantify performance indicators at a detailed scale as the farmers’ fields are essential for subsequent interventions. While such data is rarely available, it permits retrofitting new techniques and practices to the existing ones. A knowledge base of prevalent water management practices among farmers cultivating using the common smallholder irrigation technologies is important for interventions that can promote water savings and improve water productivity.

The project has developed a BISO TECH that is used to Power Up an Irrigation System. The system is Smart and integrated with Biogas and Solar (BISO) to make it Hybrid. Current studies have projected that practical irrigation done by most of the Smallholder Farmers in Malawi use treadle pumps, watering cans and gravity canals to make water management decisions. Unfortunately, 80% of farmer experience:

1. Reduced Irrigation depths

2. Decrease Irrigated crop production

3. Labour Intensive