Powering Agriculture: Annual Report Financial Year 2017

Launched in 2012, the initiative aims to support the development and deployment of clean energy innovations that stimulate low-carbon economic growth within the agriculture sector of developing countries to help end extreme poverty and extreme hunger. The PAEGC initiative utilizes the financial and technical resources of its Founding Partners to support its Innovator cohort's implementation of clean energy technologies and business models for households, farms, villages, cooperatives, and industrial facilities. The objective is to enhance agricultural yields/productivity, decrease post-harvest loss, improve farmer and agribusiness income generating opportunities and revenues, and increase energy efficiency and associated savings within the operations of farms and agribusinesses. Since its inception, PAEGC has supported 24 innovators in developing clean energy solutions for the agriculture sector in over 20 countries. These innovators have engaged in field implementation of their clean energy solutions, testing the technologies with their end users and refining their technologies and business models accordingly. The initiative has also leveraged their experiences for the development of guides, tools, studies, and papers that share lessons learned and best practices. In the 2017 financial year, PAEGC implemented several key activities, including upscaling the MOOC training to the Caribbean, releasing an updated companion reader for the Sustainable Energy for Food MOOC, and publishing a series of 6 topical guides focused on integrating gender into the development and deployment of clean energy solutions for the agricultural sector. The initiative also participated in various conferences, including the VentureWell Open 2017 and Intersolar 2017, where it received an award in the category of outstanding solar projects. PAEGC also conducted site visits to several innovators, verified progress, and interviewed beneficiaries. Additionally, the initiative published a paper on increasing productivity through irrigation and developed a Toolbox on Solar Powered Irrigation Systems Information and Tools for Advising on Solar Water Pumping and Irrigation in partnership with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Looking forward, PAEGC expects to implement several major items in the next financial year, including the establishment of a public-private partnership with an investment fund to support the commercialization and scale-up of clean energy technologies and innovative business models for farmers and agribusinesses. The initiative also plans to host the Powering Agriculture Xcelerator (PAX) program in-person workshop for the Innovators in Kenya and publish and anchor the SPIS Toolbox with training institutions through a series of training and training of the trainers, development of new modules, and an official launch at an FAO event.