LocationsFrom Sweat to Sunlight: A Malawi Student Reimagines Irrigation for Smallholder Farmers
July 31, 2026
Banda is developing a solar-powered rope-and-washer pump, an innovation designed to reduce the physical burden of irrigation.
At the University Innovation Pod (UniPod) in Blantyre, Malawi, a young innovator carefully works on a machine that could change the daily rhythm of smallholder farmers.
His name is Professor Banda. Not a title, but his real name. A Master’s student in Sustainable Energy at the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS), Banda is developing a solar-powered rope-and-washer pump, an innovation designed to reduce the physical burden of irrigation and help farmers cultivate larger areas of land with less effort.
The prototype is being developed at UniPod Malawi, a cutting-edge research, fabrication and prototyping hub located at MUBAS. Powered by the United Nations Development Programme under its pan-African Timbuktoo Initiative, UniPod is part of a continental effort to turn young people’s ideas into commercially viable products that address Africa’s development challenges.
For Banda, the challenge is clear: too many Malawian farmers still depend on their own bodies to power agriculture.
“I saw the struggle which farmers face when using manual energy,” Banda says. “It takes a lot of time, so they cultivate only a small garden because they are pumping water manually. They also get tired because it is cumbersome.”
His idea builds on a familiar technology already used in many rural communities: the rope and washer pump. Traditionally, the pump is operated by hand, using human effort to draw water for irrigation. Banda’s innovation replaces that manual power with solar energy.
Instead of a farmer turning the wheel by hand, the sun does the work.
“It is very easy,” he explains. “Instead of using human energy, the sun’s energy is used to drive the rope and washer pump and then pump water to irrigate crops.”
The prototype is already close to completion. Banda says the frame structure, which supports the wheel, jerry can and solar panel, has been completed. The innovation is now about 85 to 90 per cent finished.
But the machine is not just a solar adaptation. It is also a story about how access to modern tools can improve traditional technologies.
At UniPod, Banda has used advanced fabrication equipment to redesign parts of the pump. In the past, the washers used in rope and washer pumps were handmade from used tyres or cut from PVC material. Now, Banda is producing them with a 3D printer. Even the wheel has been 3D printed.
“The equipment here is quite advanced, so it has made our work easier,” he says. “It is going to help in the efficiency of the solar-powered rope and washer pump.”
That efficiency matters in a country where agriculture remains central to livelihoods and the economy. Many smallholder farmers depend on rain-fed farming and low-cost irrigation methods, but manual irrigation often limits how much land they can cultivate and how much food they can produce.
Banda believes his innovation, which has also received the financial support of the National Commission for Science and Technology, can help farmers grow more, harvest more and earn more.
“We have all the tools that are needed, all the equipment that is needed."Professor Banda
Banda's idea builds on a familiar technology already used in many rural communities.
“With increased efficiency, it will help farmers to pump a lot of water and harvest a lot of crops,” he says. “They will be food secure, even financially stable.”
His path into sustainable energy is rooted in a simple observation: Malawi’s agriculture is still heavily manual.
“Malawi is an agri-based economy,” he says. “However, most of the equipment used for irrigation is not mechanised. Farmers in the village still use water buckets and watering cans. Even treadle pumps are manually powered.”
For Banda, the opportunity lies in bridging the gap between appropriate technologies and renewable energy. His goal is not to replace familiar tools with expensive imported systems, but to improve technologies that communities already understand and use.
“What inspired me into this field is to bridge the gap between appropriate technologies which are manually powered, so they can be solar powered or powered by renewable energy,” he says.
Banda comes from Mitundu in Lilongwe. He is the second-born in a family of six. He says he is the first in his family to go to college and pursue this kind of engineering and innovation path.
That personal journey gives his work added meaning. At UniPod, he is not only building a machine. He is building a future in which young African innovators can respond directly to the problems around them.
The space, he says, has given him access to equipment, expertise and encouragement.
“We have all the tools that are needed, all the equipment that is needed. And not just any kind of equipment, but advanced equipment,” he says. “The team here also provides a lot of support. They are experts in electronics, mechanical work and welding.”
Across Africa, innovation hubs are often spoken about in the language of the future. But in Banda’s case, the future is tangible. It is a wheel, a rope, a solar panel, a 3D-printed washer, and a farmer who no longer has to spend hours pumping water by hand.
In the next two to five years, Banda hopes to see his innovation improved, scaled and reaching communities across Malawi.
“There are a lot of rope and washer pumps in the villages across Malawi, but they are manually powered,” he says. “A few years from now, I believe I will be seeing solar-powered rope and washer pumps across Malawi.”
For a country working to strengthen food security, expand youth innovation and promote renewable energy, Banda’s prototype offers a glimpse of what happens when local knowledge meets modern fabrication.
It begins with a simple question: What if the sun could take over the hardest part of irrigation? At UniPod Malawi, Professor Banda is working on the answer.
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