TY - JOUR
T1 - Co-creation of Affordable and Clean Pumped Irrigation for Smallholders: Lessons from Nepal and Malawi
AU - Intriago Zambrano, Juan Carlo
AU - van Dijk, Ruben
AU - Michavila, Jaime
AU - Arenas, Eva
AU - Diehl, Jan-Carel
AU - Ertsen, Maurits
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Pumped irrigation is a way to intensify smallholder production. In this context, the Dutch company aQysta has developed the Barsha pump (BP), the first-ever commercial version of the spiral pumps. BPs, however, face several constraints that affect the decision-making and access of smallholders to this and other agricultural technologies, and thus to their benefits. On this subject, Product Service System (PSS) is a type of business model able to potentially cope with a number of restrictions of different nature. Moreover, if co-created with the feedback of the users, and by addressing contextual tensions of different cases, these models can be substantially richer than their top-down counterparts. Six cases of the use of BPs have been addressed in Nepal and Malawi. Both primary and secondary data, analyzed qualitatively under the analytic induction approach, were collected through unstructured interviews and Q-methodology. Evidence shows a wide range of (non-)technical facilitating and hampering conditions for the BP, as well as preferences of the smallholders in regard to existing and proposed business model elements. Based on the corresponding analysis, a set of opportunities for an improved BP-based business model - PSS, aiming to fulfil several (and at times opposing) needs, is ultimately proposed in the current paper.
AB - Pumped irrigation is a way to intensify smallholder production. In this context, the Dutch company aQysta has developed the Barsha pump (BP), the first-ever commercial version of the spiral pumps. BPs, however, face several constraints that affect the decision-making and access of smallholders to this and other agricultural technologies, and thus to their benefits. On this subject, Product Service System (PSS) is a type of business model able to potentially cope with a number of restrictions of different nature. Moreover, if co-created with the feedback of the users, and by addressing contextual tensions of different cases, these models can be substantially richer than their top-down counterparts. Six cases of the use of BPs have been addressed in Nepal and Malawi. Both primary and secondary data, analyzed qualitatively under the analytic induction approach, were collected through unstructured interviews and Q-methodology. Evidence shows a wide range of (non-)technical facilitating and hampering conditions for the BP, as well as preferences of the smallholders in regard to existing and proposed business model elements. Based on the corresponding analysis, a set of opportunities for an improved BP-based business model - PSS, aiming to fulfil several (and at times opposing) needs, is ultimately proposed in the current paper.
KW - Barsha pump
KW - Business model
KW - Hydro-powered pump
KW - Irrigation
KW - Product service system
KW - Smallholder
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85090100359&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2166/ws.2020.052
DO - 10.2166/ws.2020.052
M3 - Article
SN - 1606-9749
VL - 20
SP - 1368
EP - 1379
JO - Water Science and Technology: Water Supply
JF - Water Science and Technology: Water Supply
IS - 4
ER -