Penn Students Design Solar Irrigation for Gambia Farms

By Blake Jackson

Students with Engineers Without Borders at Penn (EWB at Penn) are working to improve irrigation challenges faced by farmers in The Gambia after seeing conditions firsthand during farm visits. Many growers raising rice, vegetables, bananas, and cassava depend on diesel-powered pumps or an unreliable electric grid to move water from boreholes to drip lines or storage tanks.

Diesel poses health risks, and weak water pressure often forces workers to haul water manually. Although some farms use solar panels, the lack of battery storage limits irrigation during early morning and late afternoon hours when watering is most effective.

This semester, EWB at Penn is designing a solar-powered irrigation system with battery storage for FAIR Farms Gambia, a research and demonstration farm co-founded by Brianna Parsons, now the One Health Program Manager at Penn Vet. In January, students traveled with faculty mentor Lorena Grundy to meet farmers and understand local priorities.

Chloe Furst a second-year chemical and biomolecular engineering major from Philadelphia said the team asked farmers, “How do you wish to improve your system?” Students learned how vital agriculture is to national self-sufficiency, especially since staple foods like rice are often imported. “Local agriculture drives self-sufficiency in the country, and water is critical to making that happen,” said EWB at Penn Co-President Iris Wong.

Professor Lorena Grundy, faculty mentor for EWB at Penn noted that rapid development can lead to poorly designed systems lacking proper calculations. “The students will hopefully design a system from the beginning that avoids that,” she said.

The team is now determining pump capacity and system requirements, aiming to finalize plans before the rainy season. Local partners will source materials and oversee installation. Parsons emphasized, “Collaborating with the EWB at Penn team is a great educational partnership, and bringing them to The Gambia to develop this critical system led to evidence-based plans grounded in realities of life in The Gambia.”

Wong reflected on the experience: “Being able to do that in a real, hands-on, impactful way means a lot to how we grow as engineers.”

Photo Credit: penn-state-college-of-agricultural-sciences