Walking through groves of plantain trees, Candelario Bojorge and iDEal technicians discuss the various lines of black tubing that are running along the base of the tree line. If you look close, you can see small amounts of water leaking out from the tubes, quickly absorbed by the dark, moist dirt.

Candelario is a plantain farmer and a drip irrigation retailer. Working with iDEal, an iDE social enterprise focused on increasing farmers’ productivity through technology such as drip irrigation, Candelario sells drip irrigation kits to farmers in his community.

Candelario can speak firsthand to the benefits of iDEal’s drip irrigation system – earning him nearly 40% more income. Before, he was using traditional flood irrigation – pumping 25,000 liters of water into his grove for eight hours each week. Doing that four times per month totaled 800,000 liters of water monthly.
Today, with the iDEal drip irrigation system, Candelario only uses 400,000 liters per month with the same pump. The low pressure system also saves Candelario on fuel costs.

“It is very easy to operate – I just open and close the valves. While I am irrigating I can do other things like working on the farm or helping my wife with the kiosk sales we have at the house,” said Candelario.

It has also allowed him to expand his farm – he is now able to irrigate double the amount of land using the same amount of water as before. He has also noticed that the quality of the plantains has gotten better – his trees are growing more and bigger plantains.

Today, iDEal and Candelario are working together to test the efficiency of the system and find ways to improve upon it. Candelario and iDEal technicians lean in close to check the meter readings on a pump valve. Jotting down the reading, the technician adds the results to a roster of dates and locations. Collecting the data over the next few weeks, iDEal technicians will pull together a strategy to create an even more efficient system – saving Candelario and other farmers even more time and money.