For the past eight years, Jim Patell and his staff at Stanford University have taught a course called Entrepreneurial Design for the Extreme Affordability. One of the students was Peter Frykman who came up with a way to help small plot farmers in rural areas where the water supply is limited. “They need a way to use their limited water resources more effectively and basically lift themselves out of poverty,” said Frykman.
Frykman took his idea and started a company called DripTech. Based in Mountain View, California it now serves 1,000 small farmers in India and China. Unlike most irrigation systems, this one doesn’t require filters or electricity — only a bucket and a way to manually control the flow of water. “We’ve made it more affordable,” said Frykman. “We’ve made it simpler to install and maintain. It runs on lower pressure and we can manufacture it locally.”
The cost of the irrigation system runs about $150 per half-acre. Most small plot farms have less than five acres.
