Part 1 of this blog post explained why we’re conducting a solar light trial in our Rwanda operation, and what we hope to find out from the trial. In short, we’re trying to determine the demand and financial impact of different solar lights, as well as whether offering solar lights fits our mission.

Though we’re still in the early stages of the trial, we have done some interviews with trial farmers to find out what they think of the lights thus far. In this blog post, we’ll share the stories of two farmers and their first experience with solar lighting.

Vincent

Vincent Yambabariye is a One Acre Fund farmer in Mukimba. He joined One Acre Fund in 2010, and he decided to buy the solar lamp because he’s been able to save money from his great harvests. He believes that the lamp will help him save money that he would normally spend on batteries for his radio and flashlight.

Normally, Vincent uses candles and kerosene lamps to light his house, but the “light was not sufficient,” he says. He spends over 50,000 Rwanda francs ($85 USD) per year on lighting.

“This is an important project for One Acre Fund to extend all over the country as a way of helping farmers,” Vincent says.

Thus far, he is very happy with his lamp. He says it can even be used in the rain, if you need to stay safe when you are walking at night. He also says the light lasts for a long time. “I am going to pass the night with the light that I have not had since I was born,” he says.

Marie Jeanne

Marie Jeanne with her newly received solar light.

Marie Jeanne Mukangamije joined One Acre Fund in 2011. She is “astonished at the opportunities” she has received, and now wishes she had joined when One Acre Fund first entered her village in 2010.

For her first season with One Acre Fund, Marie Jeanne planted maize. Because she expects a good harvest in February, she decided to buy the solar lamp to help her reduce her lighting expenses. Last year, she spent more than 60,000 Rwanda francs ($102 USD) lighting her home.

“Solar lights will help One Acre Fund enroll more clients,” she says.

She expects that the solar light will help her children study in the evenings and improve their grades at school. She herself is looking forward to listening to her radio, which has not been working because she has not had money to buy batteries for it.

Finally, she says that the solar light will help her most with her daily evening activities. “I have not had a safe supper because I always cook in darkness. Now, anytime I want, I can prepare food safely for my family.”

Vincent and Marie Jeanne believe that the solar lights will have a positive effect on their households. We look forward to sharing the impact results of our solar trial in Rwanda as it continues!

A One Acre Fund farmer picks up her solar lamp at the distribution in December.

Almost 300 One Acre Fund farmers in Rwanda rang in 2012 with solar lamps lighting up their homes. They are all participants in our Rwanda operation’s first solar lights trial. This initiative follows in the footsteps of our Kenya program, where after a successful trial in 2010, we offered solar lights to all Kenya clients in 2011. Over 10,000 farmers bought the lights.

Though there are many similarities between our farmers in Kenya and Rwanda, we want to make sure that any new product we offer meets our internal standards for impact. We never make assumptions about impact—we always conduct trials.

Before starting our Rwanda trial on solar lights, we collected some data. Only 1 percent of rural Rwandans were connected to the electricity grid as of 2009. As a result, most of our clients are dependent on kerosene lamps, candles, flashlights, and burning wood for light. Our farmers’ need for household lighting is especially pronounced, due to the relatively early hour of sunset: Rwanda is close to the equator, which means it gets dark at roughly 6:30pm.

Based on this data, the potential impact of solar lights on our clients is high. The improved quality of light that is provided by solar lights can positively affect productivity; evening pursuits, from household chores to economic activities to schoolwork, are easier (or only possible!) when tasks are well illuminated. Solar lights also supply hours of power at a time, adding quantity to quality. As a result, they can potentially save households money through decreased expenditures on kerosene, candles, batteries and even cell phone charging. Finally, solar lights may provide health advantages, by limiting exposure to smoke generated by kerosene lamps.

Solar lights also have the potential to benefit One Acre Fund as an organization. Diversifying our product offerings allows us to move toward financial sustainability at a more rapid rate. In addition, the opportunity to purchase solar lights on credit may entice new farmers to join One Acre Fund—many rural Rwandans already view the lamps as desirable products, but are unable to access them due to geographic and financial barriers (barriers that One Acre Fund distribution would largely remove).

We designed our trial to achieve the following objectives:

• Determine the demand for different types of solar lights
• Determine the financial impact of each type of solar light (including money saved on energy expenditures, money earned from selling cell-phone charging, hours saved by charging cell phones at home, and extra hours of light per night).
• Determine the non-financial impact of each type of solar light (primarily the change in the number of hours that students study at night)
• Determine whether solar lights further One Acre Fund’s mission of making more farmers more prosperous

The trial is being implemented in three places in Karongi District, Rwanda, all off the grid. Each cell was given access to a different selection of solar lights manufactured by Tough Stuff and Greenlight Planet. The lights range in price from 15,000 Rwanda francs (about $25 USD) to 24,800 Rwanda francs (about $40 USD) and have a product life of 3-5 years. All One Acre Fund clients in the trial cells had the opportunity to take a loan for a solar light, with a loan term of 6-9 months. Roughly 35 percent of clients chose to adopt one of the solar lights. If the same percentage held true during a full-scale rollout, over 16,000 farmers would purchase lights.

We have also selected four locations to be controls for the trial. More than 200 farmers in the control cells, all without solar lights, are tracking their daily energy use, spending habits, household commodities (# of cell phones, flashlights, kerosene lamps, radios) and children’s study habits. We will compare this data with that of the trial farmers in order to isolate the impact of solar lights. The control areas were chosen to minimize the differences between the trial and control group participants and will therefore provide a strong baseline for our analysis.

This trial kicked off in the middle of December, so we are looking forward to finding out what the first round of data has to tell us. In the meantime, we’ve done some interviews with trial farmers to hear what they think of the lights so far. In Part 2 of this blog post, we’ll share the stories of two One Acre Fund farmers and their first experience with solar lighting.