Despite its importance to both agricultural and environmental outcomes, irrigation has not been a terribly successful subsection of agtech. We have our theories about why that is (we wrote a whole report about it, The agtech adoption dilemma: Irrigation), and many others have also spotted the challenges in this space. 

But when Jairo Trad and his team dug in, they saw an opportunity for business model innovation. Their path, via Argentinian agtech company Kilimo, has been far from smooth, but where they’ve ended up seems to be a unique unlock for adoption and value capture. 

This week, we’re sitting down with Jairo, CEO and Cofounder at Kilimo, who’s spent the last 14 years expanding the boundaries of the ag-water system to find the right answer to the question “who pays for water efficiency improvements.” We discuss:: 

• Why deploying irrigation hardware in agriculture was not the right model for Kilimo 
• The rational reasons why farmers avoid the pursuit of water efficiency, and how to leverage these reasons to encourage change
• How the combination of sticky products and financial innovation align incentives among a diverse cohort of customers, stakeholders, and partners

Useful Links:

• The agtech adoption dilemma: irrigation 
• Feature about Jairo from Memphis org
• AgFunder story on Kilimo
• Understanding farmer’s water struggles with Jairo (video)

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