Wednesday 19 November 2014


Farmers turn to sun to keep their agriculture fields wet

CHENNAI: Sivanandam, a farmer in Arani, is a happy man now. His problem was that since electricity has been a scarce commodity in recent years, his farm never got water whenever it required. But now he is assured of continuous supply from 7am to 5pm, and he can carry out agricultural operation round the year - growing paddy, pulses and cash crops. He says it's all because of his solar-powered water pump. Sivanandam isn't alone.

Given the benefits of predictable water supply and extended agricultural activity, solarisation of agricultural pumps is catching on like wild fire, particularly after the government allotted ` `400 crore in the 2014-15 budget for solar water pumps.

More than 18,000 farmers across India are now owners of solar water pumps. They no longer depend on the free (in Tamil Nadu) but erratic grid power supply to run their irrigation pumps.

Irrigation pumps are a $40 billion industry in the country.

There are over 30 million pumps that need to be solarised, companies say. Several government schemes are available to encourage farmers take the solar route. Under most schemes, farmers are required to pay about "1 lakh for a 3HP (horse power) pump which costs about" 4.5 lakh, and the government funds the rest.

Currently, adoption of solar pumps is entirely dependent on government subsidies and funding, but it would still be economical for the government to encourage this than provide free grid power to farmers, experts say. "Various state governments provide close to `Rs 90,000 crore as power subsidy for the agricultural sector. Spending about ` Rs 3.5 lakh on solarising each pump would make economic sense for state power utilities," says Pashupathy Gopalan, president (Asia-Pacific) SunEdison, a company which has installed over 1,200 pumps so far.

For farmers who don't entirely depend on subsidies, there are several banks and government agencies which support solar pumps, said Sanjeev Sirsi, head water utility, Grundfos Pumps India, whose pumps have been used in over 8,800 systems in India.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Farmers-turn-to-sun-to-keep-their-agriculture-fields-wet/articleshow/45200890.cms

No comments:

Post a Comment