Helping Social Entrepreneurs – Water Management 22:00, 2018 (Ref: AS18878)

Description

In India, water management is a very big issue and one Social Entrepreneur is doing an amazing job of helping farmers to do this.

In India, farmers struggle to grow their crops during the long dry months. The company, IDEI, tries to help by making affordable irrigation products that feed plants a drop of water at a time.

But can farmers really make enough money to pay for them? And can IDEI’s inspirational boss, Amitabha Sadangi, accept Alvin Hall’s challenge to groom a successor?

In India, many farmers are forced off their land during the hot, dry summer. Unable to produce enough food to feed their families, they migrate to the cities in search of work with many of them living rough on the edge of the city.

This is what Amitabha is trying to change through his water irrigation system. He wants farmers to be able to grow their crops all year – even in summer – and therefore improve their lives and the lives of their families.

But it is a heady mix, with many farmers having their superstitions and rituals alongside the simple science of Amitabha’s drip irrigation system.

But Amitabha is a great businessman and salesman, producing a Bollywood quality film to help sell his product. And his sales goals are ambitious.

He wants ten million farmers to sign up for his system in the next decade.

Alvin visits farmers who have bought the drip water system for the first time and witnesses how their crops fair after the first dry summer. He also speaks with farmers who have used the drip system for a few years and sees how life has improved for them.

But whatever happens to these Indian farmers, the chance to transform their lives came from the extraordinary vision of one man, Amitabha Sadangi, and his tremendous commitment to them.

IDEI is now going global, with offices in Africa, Asia and Latin America.