Martin Fisher

Biography

As a pioneer in using business models to solve poverty, Martin is the co-founder & CEO of KickStart, a non-profit SE with a mission to enable millions of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to pivot from rainfed to irrigated farming, earn a lot more money, adapt to climate change & climb out of poverty. KickStart designs & promotes lowest-cost irrigation technologies & to-date over 410,000 farmers have used its pumps to grow, harvest & sell high-value crops year-round, independent of rains. Their highly profitable & resilient farms have lifted 1.5M people out of poverty. With only 4% of farmland irrigated in SSA, millions more can irrigate & gain income & food security. KickStart partners with 100s of organizations to promote irrigation, develop new technologies, innovate new ways to reach & finance farmers, & advocate for system changes. With a Cornell BSc, a Stanford PhD, a Fulbright in Kenya, and many awards, Martin is a Skoll & Schwab SE & a Stanford Engineering Hero.