Martin Fisher

Brainstormer, Change agent, Designer, Engineer, Idea generator, Inventor, Social entrepreneur, World traveler

Martin is an award winning engineer and social entrepreneur who led the way in showing how social business models can be used to solve global poverty. With a BSc from Cornell and PhD from Stanford he went to Kenya on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1985. In 1991 he co-founded KickStart International (then called ApproTEC), a non-profit social enterprise with a mission to enable millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to earn a lot more money and climb out of poverty. KickStart works by designing and promoting low-cost technologies that entrepreneurial individuals can purchase and use to establish highly profitable businesses. Since 2000 they have concentrated on developing tools for small-scale irrigation, and they have enabled over 1.4 million women, men and children to climb out of poverty. 80% of the poor in SSA are smallholder farmers, yet 25% of the population are chronically hungry and 30% of children under 5 are stunted. The farmers all plant when it rains, and all harvest at the same time. They flood the markets, earn low prices, and ~40% of their crops spoil before being eaten or sold. In the dry, off, ‘hungry seasons, they fall back into poverty, and when rains fail they harvest nothing. But with irrigation they can harvest multiple cycles of high value crops per year—independent of the rains—and transform their farms into highly profitable businesses. They sell when prices are high, gain year-round food security and feed their communities. They adapt-to-climate-change, save rain-fed crops in droughts and replant quickly after floods. But only 4% of farmland in SSA is irrigated vs. over 40% in Asia. So KickStart designs, distributes and promotes very low-cost MoneyMaker-branded irrigation pumps. To date, over 410,000 farmers have used them to transform their farms, fully feed and educate all their children, and invest in their futures. Over 1.5 million women, men and children have climbed out of poverty and the fruits/vegetables they grow are feeding over 15 million people. But millions more SSA farmers can use environmentally sustainable irrigation, from renewable surface water and shallow aquifers, to dramatically increase their incomes, adapt-to-climate-change and feed the continent. So KickStart partners with hundreds of development players (NGOs, UN & Govt. Agencies, MFIs and Agribusinesses) across 17 sub-Saharan African countries, to educate smallholders about irrigation and enable them to access the required tools. It establishes local for-profit supply chains that sell pumps and spares, innovates new lowest-cost irrigation technologies and new ways to reach, educate and finance farmers, and it advocates to catalyze a movement to Irrigate Africa. KickStart combines the power of technology, the entrepreneurial spirit of the poor and the private sector marketplace to enable millions to gain food and income security, build enduring resilience, adapt to climate change and climb out of poverty. Martin and KickStart have won numerous awards for their pioneering work including being named a; Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year; Skoll Foundation Social Entrepreneur; Design News Engineer of the Year; Stanford Engineering Hero; and most recently a member of the Millions Lives Club.

KickStart, Africa, Irrigating Africa, Eradicating Poverty, Resilient Housing, High Impact Philanthropy, Travel, Exploring, Good Food, Mountains, Hiking, Running, Bicycling and Dancing.

Irrigate Africa – We need to catalyze the widespread uptake of smallholder irrigation across sub-Saharan Africa. Without irrigation Africa’s farmers will never feed the growing population and adapt to climate change! With sustainable irrigation they can! Join us at www.kickstart.org, and together we can make that possible. Resilient Housing for all – To survive climate-change and human-driven disasters, billions of people need disaster resistant housing. We need to rapidly and cost-effectively build and retrofit houses to make them resilient to earthquakes, storms, fires and floods, and we need to permanently change the ways that houses are built. Join us at www.buildchange.org to get this done.

Africa, African agriculture, Design for the other 90%, High Impact Philanthropy, Impact Investing - or not?, Irrigating Africa, Mechanical Engineering and Design, Social enterprise, Solving Global Poverty

I first came to, and spoke at, TED in Monterey in 2003 when I described my work with ApproTEC (now KickStart) designing and promoting human powered irrigation pumps in Africa. Since then I have attended TED almost every year—including TED Africa. I also spoke about High Impact Philanthropy at TED-U in 2010. To date, with the support of many TED'sters, more than 360,000 of our MoneyMaker irrigation pumps have been used by poor small-scale farmers across sub-Saharan Africa. The farmers have started highly profitable farming businesses growing and selling high value fruits and vegetables year round—independent of the rains. They have gained food security, adapted to climate change and earned greatly increased incomes—enabling more than 1.4 Million women, men and children to climb out of poverty. They are irrigating ~160,000 acres and the fruits and vegetables grown are meeting the full needs of over 13 million people. But we are only scratching the surface. KickStart is partnering with hundreds of NGOs, UN and Govt. agencies, MFIs and agribusinesses to reach, train and equip hundreds-of-thousands more farmers. And we are partnering to innovate new lowest-cost sustainable technologies, new ways of reaching, educating and financing the poorest farmers, and working to catalyze a movement to put in place the polices, and investments required to Irrigate Africa. With continued help from more TED'sters we can enable millions more African farmers to climb out of poverty and feed the continent.

Dancing - at least I'm good at enjoying it. Running, Hiking and Biking - at least when I have the time to stay in shape.