{"id":2014,"date":"2018-10-10T06:09:50","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T06:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/?p=2014"},"modified":"2021-12-01T12:36:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T12:36:16","slug":"how-solar-water-pumps-can-revolutionise-indias-farm-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/story\/2014\/how-solar-water-pumps-can-revolutionise-indias-farm-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"How Solar Water Pumps Can Revolutionise India&#8217;s Farm Sector"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For a long time, solar water pumps were considered to be standalone systems \u00a0to be deployed in places where the grid has not reached. Solar water pumps were seen as the second best solution to grid connected pumps. They were considered useful only by farmers who were dependent on expensive diesel based pump-sets to offset fuel costs. However, with improvements in technology and reduction in the price of solar equipment, solar water pumps are now a good replacement for most, even all, grid connected electric pumps as well.<\/p>\n<p>Almost all states in India do not offer 24&#215;7 power supply to farmers. Power to farmer feeders are regulated in shifts of 8 hours and tends to be erratic. Farmers, therefore, have no control on the power supply available to them. This results in the practice of leaving water pump switched on throughout the day, such that when power is supplied, the field is irrigated. It often results in flooding of fields. This makes for \u00a0a wasteful method of irrigation, particularly in India, which faces acute water scarcity. Thus, solar water pumps that give farmers control over their water and power supply, can also lead to an increase in groundwater conservation.<\/p>\n<p>Two of the Indian power sector\u2019s fundamental problems are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>subsidised and often unmetered electricity for the farm sector<\/li>\n<li>\u2028the need for high-quality day-time power supply to farmers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the case of Gujarat, for example, nearly 27% of the state&#8217;s electricity goes towards the farm sector, while recovery from this sector is a meager 3% of overall revenues. This reflects the extent of subsidy given to the farm sector. Despite this, quality day-time power is not always available.<\/p>\n<p>In many states, agricultural power connections are also unmetered, resulting in systemic inefficiencies such as theft and transmission and distribution (T&amp;D) losses getting bundled as agricultural loss. Besides, rising power prices for agricultural consumers adds to the challenges given the overall stress already being faced in the farm sector.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2015\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2015\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2015\" src=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-india-stateless\/2018\/10\/da883a30-solar-pump-macro-tw-1024x513.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"513\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-india-stateless\/2018\/10\/da883a30-solar-pump-macro-tw-1024x513.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-india-stateless\/2018\/10\/da883a30-solar-pump-macro-tw-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-india-stateless\/2018\/10\/da883a30-solar-pump-macro-tw-768x385.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-india-stateless\/2018\/10\/da883a30-solar-pump-macro-tw-510x255.jpg 510w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-india-stateless\/2018\/10\/da883a30-solar-pump-macro-tw.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-2015\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Under KUSUM scheme, government is expected to provide 2.75 million solar irrigation pumps to farmers across India. It can bring \ud83d\udca1in un-electrified villages &amp; also help India meet its Renewable Energy targets<\/p><\/div>\n<p>What the net-metered solar water pumps could do, if successful, is \u00a0reduce agricultural power consumption from the grid and therefore, reduce ongoing subsidies to the farm sector and improve energy access to farmers.\u2028\u2028 Solar water pumps can also fundamentally empowers farmers by providing them an extra \u2018climate proof\u2019 income, particularly at a time when low farmer incomes are a serious problem.\u2028\u2028This could be a good way to meet the Central Government\u2019s goal of doubling farm income by 2022.<\/p>\n<p><em>Pujarini Sen is a Climate and Energy Campaigner at Greenpeace India.<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t<section\n\t\t\tclass=\"boxout post-1930 \"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\tdata-ga-category=\"Take Action Boxout\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-ga-action=\"Image\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-ga-label=\"n\/a\"\n\t\t\t\tclass=\"cover-card-overlay\"\n\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/act\/solar-revolution-in-india\/\" \n\t\t\t><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsrc=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-india-stateless\/2018\/07\/GP0STO97Y_Web_size.jpg\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsrcset=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-india-stateless\/2018\/07\/GP0STO97Y_Web_size-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-india-stateless\/2018\/07\/GP0STO97Y_Web_size-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-india-stateless\/2018\/07\/GP0STO97Y_Web_size-510x340.jpg 510w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-india-stateless\/2018\/07\/GP0STO97Y_Web_size.jpg 800w\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsizes=\"(min-width: 1000px) 358px, (min-width: 780px) 313px, 88px\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\talt=\"\" title=\"\"\n\t\t\t\t\/>\n            \t\t\t<div class=\"boxout-content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"boxout-heading medium\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-ga-category=\"Take Action Boxout\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-ga-action=\"Title\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-ga-label=\"n\/a\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/act\/solar-revolution-in-india\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tEmpower Our Farmers\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"boxout-excerpt\">From sunlight to a clean energy efficient farming for securing a sustainable energy future for India!<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t                                    <a\n                        class=\"btn btn-primary\"\n                        data-ga-category=\"Take Action Boxout\"\n                        data-ga-action=\"Call to Action\"\n                        data-ga-label=\"n\/a\"\n                        href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/act\/solar-revolution-in-india\/\"\n                        \n                    >\n                        Get Involved\n                    <\/a>\n                \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For a long time, solar water pumps were considered to be standalone systems \u00a0to be deployed in places where the grid has not reached. Solar water pumps were seen as&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":1382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5],"tags":[25,28],"p4-page-type":[16],"class_list":["post-2014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clean-energy","category-issues","tag-renewables","tag-fossil-fuels","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2014"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12290,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions\/12290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2014"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=2014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}