Identify opportunities:
One of BB2C’s core values is seeing the poor as potential entrepreneurs, but what business would be profitable for the rural poor in Cambodia? What types of businesses can a poor person start? Since it is easiest to start a business that initially sells products or services to neighbors or in the local village, we next looked at what assets do the rural poor hold.
- The farmers in Chhouk Kranhas (the village that we are now working in) have two valuable assets, a small plot of land and basic farming skills.
- They also have an abundance of two valuable resources – their time and their labor.
Note the creative but primitive pump now used in Chhouk Kranhas. Bicycle tires and pedals form the pulley used to draw water. Also notice the hand-made trough to the right.
What new tools will get them started?
BB2C understands  that access to water is key to the rural poor’s ability to generate income and escape poverty. We searched exhaustively for a simple, low-cost, micro-irrigation technology.  We found what we were looking for in Africa–a pump developed by KickStart International, a not-for-profit organization based in Kenya. Using these pumps for irrigation will allow people to move from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture.
Introducing  Simple, Low-Cost, Pump Technology
While the Cambodian villagers we work with have sources of water for farming, getting that water to their land is costly and onerous. Often villagers carry water to their fields in buckets. BB2C’s is introducing a simple, inexpensive, pump technology to individual Cambodian farmers so that they may more easily and more cheaply access water for irrigation. We are bringing these pumps to Cambodia for the first time. They represent a significant improvement over similar mechanisms currently available in Cambodia.