Karnataka: Tripped by power cuts, lured by subsidy, farmers take solar bait

Kalaburagi: A double whammy of recurring drought and inadequate power supply is pushing farmers in the state to opt for solar-powered pumpsets, with a 20% increase in government subsidy to buy the units acting as an icing on the cake. 

The figures say it all: around 24,000 farmers across the state applied online to get a solar power connection since March, whereas only 5,000 farmers registered in the last nine years. With the government increasing the subsidy amount from 60 to 80 per cent, solar-powered pumpsets have become affordable to even small farmers. 

Buoyed by the response, the Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL) set a target of giving 40,000 solar pumpsets in February.

Gundappa Pujari, who hails from Kaddaragi village of Chittapur taluk, installed a solar pumpset under the PM-KUSUM scheme last year and got a 60 per cent subsidy. He is relieved that the move has paid off.

"I used to suffer loss every year due to drought. Regular water supply helped me to earn a good revenue for the first time last year," Pujari said. 

This wasn't the case earlier. Electricity supply companies usually supply power to pumpsets at night, which force farmers to stay up to run their units. Working at night also puts them in harm's way, as they could be bitten by snakes or poisonous insects.

That anxiety is history. With solar pumpsets, farmers can get electricity during the day time. 

Farmer Raghavendra Kulkarni from Bankalaga village of Chittapur taluk wants to get his hands on a solar pumpset.

"I have applied for the 7.5 HP solar pumpset and expected to get a connection soon. The three-hour power supply provided by Gescom is insufficient. We can draw water from 7.30 am to 5 pm by installing a solar pumpset,” he said. 

The cost of each solar pumpset varies from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh and each farmer is allowed only one solar pumpset connection. 

Out of the 24,000 online applications, KREDL received 19,000 from 12 districts — Belagavi, Tumakuru, Vijayapura, Chikkamagaluru, Kalaburagi, Chitradurga, Hassan, Shivamogga, Mysuru, Bagalkot, Davangere and Mandya — through its Souramitra web portal.

"We have received an overwhelming response from the farmers after an increase in the subsidy," KREDL Managing Director K P Rudrappaiah said. "The awareness on solar pumpsets and the subsidy has also increased. We are planning to give it on a first-come first-serve basis through regularising an unauthorised pumpset situated more than 500 metres away from the borewells." 

The government had earlier regularised many pumpsets of the farmers who used to draw power connections illegally in the absence of infrastructure, including electric poles. But there are still many such unauthorised pumpsets.