The growing world population and the change in dietary patterns will dramatically increase the demand for food and feed, which will turn into a greater use of water, agriculture’s primary production factor. In a context exacerbated by the ongoing climate change, which results in farmers’ increasing need to irrigate cost-efficiently to stay competitive, policy makers around the globe are striving to implement strategies and new technologies for better use and conservation of water resources. However, while the introduction of new drip and sprinkler-based irrigation practices allowed substantial water savings, these came at the expenses of an increase of energy consumption and capital expenditure, making modernized irrigation less profitable. Leveraging on the successful launch of the Barsha Pump, a floating river pump for small-scale farmers throughout the world, which does not require any fuel or electricity to operate, aQysta will develop and demonstrate a large-scale system for canals that can serve the needs of irrigation communities in Europe. This novel HyPump system will be designed as a size-scalable concept, allowing for several variants according to the specific needs of the targeted customers in Europe, and will allow users to benefit from up to 70% savings on operating costs with respect to standard fuel or electric pumps. Furthermore, the proposed solution will drastically reduce the environmental footprint with respect to conventional pumps and is 2 times less capital intensive than solar pumps.
