KickStart International, a San Francisco-based nonprofit social enterprise organization, has announced $2 million in financing from Citi Microfinance and Citi Bank.

The financing will be used by the organization to expand production and distribution of its human-powered water pumps, which enable poor farmers in developing countries to irrigate throughout the year, thus improving crop yields and boosting family income. With support from the Skoll Foundation, the loan is the first from Citi directed to the social enterprise sector and will specifically support smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, where farm yields are among the lowest in the world. According to the World Bank, 65 percent of Africa's labor force is employed in agriculture, yet farming accounts for only 32 percent of the continent's gross domestic product.

KickStart is a grantee of Skoll's Smallholder Productivity and Food Security program, which works to help smallholder farmers in developing countries move beyond subsistence farming and achieve greater financial security in an environmentally friendly manner.

"Irrigation has tremendous potential to increase productivity, raise income levels for smallholder farmers in Africa, and provide a sustainable solution to the rural poor's most important need — a way to consistently earn money," said KickStart International co-founder and CEO Martin Fisher. "This innovative collaboration between Citi and Skoll Foundation will enable KickStart to scale our efforts to alleviate poverty."