Paul Polak is an entrepreneur with a social conscience. He also has a proven Free Market Fusion idea: how people can make money while doing good for themselves and their neighbors.

During his first career, Polak was a psychiatrist who specialized in dealing with mental health problems of the poor.

"I also traveled a lot," he explains. "And it became obvious to me that many of the mental health problems around the world were rooted in the symptoms of poverty. So, when I went through mid-life crisis and decided to make a career change, attacking one of the fundamental issues -- poverty behind mental patients' situations -- seemed natural."

Polak is also a successful investor and entrepreneur, having dealt with small companies and start-ups most of his adult life. He understands the difference that giving poor people a chance to help themselves, as opposed to giving handouts, can make.

"This obviously doesn't work in the middle of a war or in the aftermath of an earthquake," he says. "There will continue to be a need for direct assistance in such crises."

But in relatively stable, developing countries, he pinpointed millions of farmers and manual laborers who were in poverty or on the borderline. For those individuals and their families, simple farming devices and light manufacturing have made an enormous difference in their quality of life, including mental and physical health.

According to a World Bank study, large-scale irrigation projects funded by international agencies in locations such as Asia and Africa have had disappointing results in helping farmers increase food production. Still, populations are increasing, and there is an acute need for more local food production.

The same report has placed considerable hope in small-scale technology solutions to irrigation that can be implemented on an individual level. This includes the appropriate-technology approach of IDE.

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