Stephen Obuya, a father of three and a resident of Sombetini in Tanzania, has successfully started an agribusiness where he converted a land originally used as a garbage dump site and had reclaimed it into a garden. There he grows kale with the help of a mechanically operated irrigation pump, a device manufactured in Arusha.

With the garden, Obuya lets fellow villagers harvest the amount of kale they want off his garden and are able to pay for. This way he has achieved an average income of about Sh38,400 (Tsh 691,200) as oppose to Sh4,500-Sh5,000 (approx. Tsh81,000).

The "Moneymaker pump" is a design by a non-profit organization called Kickstart who work to develop  solutions to aid small-scale farmers and how to improve their food production using simple irrigation systems. These systems are mechanically operated and therefore do not need gasoline, which make them cheaper to operate. The construction of these systems are very simple and easily repairable, lasting 3 years before needing any maintenance. These pumps go for around Sh8,800 (Tsh158,400). To expensive to buy for some people, villagers have bought systems and have them leased out.

The Moneymaker pumps allow for excess food production which farmers can then sell. Obuya specifically sets aside 95% of his harvest for sale while the rest is for his families consumption.

Besides using the system for water harvesting for his garden, Obuya also uses the system to make brick.

"Nearly all the farmers using the machines prefer to grow vegetables because they take less time to mature, require small area to grow and have high turnover in monetary sales." - Pendo, a female farmer.

Kebaso, G. (2012, October 31). Garbage site turns into bread basket in Tanzania.Agriculture. Retrieved October 8, 2014, from http://www.kickstart.org/news/Garbage site turns into bread basket in Tanzania - Oct. 31, 2012- full article.pdf