Impact investment into Global Easy Water Products, a for-profit company which has developed a manually-operated drip irrigation system, is benefiting hundreds of small holder farmers in India.

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Global Easy Water Products (GEWP) has done this in India for farmers who operate plots of between one and four acres, often in places where water is increasingly scarce.

"We know farmers whose fathers never had a problem with their bore wells and now they're finding they don't have enough water to take care of their fields," says Katie Hill, the Hyderabad-based India portfolio manager at Acumen Fund, the social venture fund that has invested in GEWP's technology.

The company has developed a drip irrigation system that consists of a bicycle-tyre inner tube and requires no electricity for the pumping mechanism but instead has a foot-pedal pump.

"It's labour-intensive but the one thing poor farmers often do have at their disposal is labour," says Ms Hill.

According to Acumen Fund, the system has raised the income of smallholder farmers by an average of $400 a year, increases crop yields by 30 to 70 per cent and delivers water savings of between 30 and 50 per cent.

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