Some innovations from India

Reports on three of this year's Ashden award winners (both reports in clude videos.

IDEI, India, treadle pumps for irrigation:
"The Farmers Friend, a simple treadle pump developed by IDEI, is changing the lives of poor farmers in Eastern India. The low-cost device, used for pumping water for irrigation, has trebled farmers incomes so they can now save and send their children to school. Three quarters of a million pumps have been sold, with sales boosted by promotion campaigns using Bollywood-style films. IDEI is scaling up production fast aiming to sell up to two million treadle pumps by 2010."

India: Bihar business wins global award for green solution to blackouts:
"Saran Renewable Energy has installed a new gasification system that generates electric power for eleven hours per day using locally-sourced biomass, providing a popular, sustainable, and cheap alternative to an unreliable grid supply. The 220 MWh of electricity produced in a year is currently sold to ten businesses which previously used diesel generators, as well as farmers, a school and a clinic. The result is a better-quality and more reliable electricity supply that prevents the emission of about 200 tonnes/year CO2 from the 77,000 tonnes of diesel that would otherwise be used, and helps to secure income for the 100 local farmers who supply biomass."

GERES, solar greenhouses in India:
"GERES has worked with local NGOs in Ladakh to design a robust greenhouse that captures and retains the suns heat. It has built 600 greenhouses that enable villagers to grow vegetables throughout the year - even when temperatures drop to -25°C. Greenhouse owners eat eight times more vegetables than before and their incomes have increased by 30 percent. The project is leading to better nutrition and health for over 50,000 people a quarter of the local population."

Similar research to the last has also been attributed to Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR): Reports from Hindu Oxygen content in Ladakh up 50 per centand Gaae Times Farmers in Ladakh take to greenhouses for better yield.