Parmar has become a pioneer in the pilot project to tap solar power
Big things begin with one small step. The people in Anand, the mecca of cooperative revolution, know this very well. No wonder they gave birth and went on to built the world’s biggest cooperative in milk – Amul. They also experimented by building a cooperative for distribution of natural gas. Now, they have set their eyes on building a cooperative of installing solar panels to power their water pumps or tubewells across farms.
“We are looking for a village where 40-50 farmers having tubewells are willing to surrender grid connections taken to operate their water pumps and instead tap in to solar energy to run their water pumps,” Tushaar Shah of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) said. The seeds of this idea were sown with Raman Parmar, a farmer from Thamna village in Central Gujarat’s Anand district with roughly five acres of land, agreeing to take the plunge. “Like most of the farmers we met, his concern was whether the water yield from solar water pump would be similar to electrical pump, especially when the weather is cloudy. He also cultivates paddy and needs proper irrigation. It took us a couple of meetings with him to convince him that during rainy season there is no need to water the farm and the need for using water pump is next to nothing. He was finally convinced and agreed to install the solar-powered water pump,” Shah added.
The IWMI team went around the village for 15-20 days trying to identify the right farmer who practically lived on his farm 24X7. They were finally led to Parmar by sarpanch of the village. The other issue was that of who would shell out the money as it requires Rs 7.5 lakh to assemble entire equipment, solar panels, water pump, meter etc. The deal was cut and the IWMI shelled out all the money. “The cost of installation is too high and initially it is indeed difficult to operate the system. If you just calculate the interest on the installation cost, it would come too high. The cost of power to farmers in the state is also 40-50 paise per unit. However, I was trained by the IWMI people to operate the pump using solar unit and how I can sell the power to the electricity board. The state also provides subsidy for installation. Moreover, I do not have to pay anything to get electricity anymore,” he added.
Parmar thus became pioneer in the IWMI’s innovative pilot Solar Power as Remunerative Crop (SPaRC). The IWMI also worked with power distribution company in the region-- Madhya Gujarat Vij Company Limited (MGVCL) -- to connect farmer to the grid and purchase power from the farmer. This helped Parmar recently earn his first cheque of Rs 7,500 by selling 1,500 kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity generated by his solar panels in last four months.
Parmar is now a happy man and says that the use of solar energy has seen his power consumption down to half. Thus, this scheme helps farmers hedge their crop risk and help ease “subsidy” pressure on state electricity boards, as farmers instead of remaining consumers can become power producers.
Shah feels that this would see farmers conserve energy and underground water, make Indian agriculture greener by use of clean energy and help avoid any waste of the precious commodity – water. If Parmar had used the amount of electricity he sold off to run his pump, he would have pumped out additional 8 million litres of water from underground. The IWMI feels that if they can make a success of this experiment in Anand, it could well prove to be a model for 11 million farmers currently connected to various power grids. It may also prove an alternative to 20 million electric and diesel pumps that could be replaced and help cut country’s emissions by as much as 6 per cent.
“The big hurdle is high cost of installation but we feel that once the demand picks up and once suppliers see this as a bigger market, the cost could soften. In Gujarat, the government also gives a subsidy of as high as 95 per cent on capital investment, though with certain riders to protect its interest. Even, Karnataka has announced a scheme Surya Raitha for agricultural sector but it is yet to be implemented on the ground,” Shah added.
“I have been using traditional power for more than 28 years in my farm. The supply from grid was not only erratic at times but also was alternating between day and night every week. Here, I can just switch on the system and irrigate the field during the day at my convenience. I also get to earn money by supplying excess power to the electricity board,” Parmar said.
The challenge is now to convince the governments that this is the way forward, if it seeks to realise its dream of producing power using green energy going forward. It also benefits the government to incentivise farmer to produce electricity and sell it back rather than survive purely on government subsidies. In Gujarat alone, about 28 per cent of the electricity to agri sector is used to operate tubewells and drawing water. Gujarat also has about 1.2 million registered farmers with power connection, with 50,000 more waiting for similar electricity connection. This translates into over Rs 4,000 crore in power subsidy to farmers every year. “Now we are trying to convince a group of farmers to surrender its electricity connections and instead have one single connection to the grid by forming a cooperative. Like Amul, the distribution of monies can be proportionate to what individual farmer supplies to the cooperative and in turn the grid,” Shah said.
Parmar has become one of the biggest proponent of use of solar energy. He has had visitors from all across the state, who come in droves or individually to just see the benefits of solar energy. “I have been receiving visitors from Khambhat, Surat, Ahmedabad, Baroda and nearby villages. A couple of days back a 95-year-old man, who worked with a fertiliser company in his younger days, came calling from Baroda. It is heartening to see the interest. This is the first time in my life I had seen use of solar energy. I tell everyone who comes to meet me that this is nature’s gift available to everyone equally. They must tap it to the fullest. It can help realise the dream of lighting the entire nation,” he adds.
Shah feels that if farmers switch to tapping solar power, India could well become the biggest solar panel market in the world.
A win-win situation for all!
Published 25 July 2015, 18:34 IST