Founder of Nonprofit Group That Aids Farmers in Developing Countries to Speak at UMass Amherst

March 21, 2008

Contact:

Mary Serdakowski 413/577-3285

AMHERST, Mass. – Paul Polak, the founder of International Development Enterprises, will speak at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on Tuesday, April 1. Sponsored by UMass Amherst and Engineers Without Borders, the lecture is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Engineering Lab II. The event is open to the public, and a reception in the Kellogg Room will follow.

For the past 25 years, Polak has worked with thousands of farmers in countries around the world – including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal and Zimbabwe – to help design and produce low-cost, income-generating products that have already lifted 17 million people out of poverty.

Employing strategies similar to those he pioneered as a psychiatrist, Polak spent time walking with farmers through their one-acre farms and enjoying a cup of tea with their families while sitting on a stool in front of their homes. His ability to respond with innovative solutions, such as a $25 treadle pump and small farm drip-irrigation systems starting at $3, helped increase the net income of farmers by $288 million annually.

International Development Enterprises is a nonprofit organization based in Colorado that has been helping farmers in developing countries escape poverty for more than 25 years. Programs create an environment that helps small farmers progress from subsistence agriculture to commercial farming, beginning an upward spiral out of chronic deprivation and vulnerability.

IDE received a $14 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2006. In 2004, Polak received Ernst and Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” award in the social responsibility category. He was also named one of Scientific American’s “Top 50” for his leadership in agriculture policy in 2003.

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