A high level stakeholder meet titled “Strengthening the Energy, Water & Agricultural Nexus” was organised today at Raipur by SwitchON Foundation under the collaboration with CREDA. The discussion was primarily around sustainable irrigation using solar pumps and water management for agriculture in the state and promoting deployment of various small-scale renewable energy-based livelihood applications (DRE), and the potential to create long-term jobs.
The event was attended by various departments of the state dealing with these issues including nodal agencies of various livelihood mission programmes. The Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA) has been actively working towards promoting standalone off grid solar agricultural pumps under Chhattisgarh Saur Sujala Yojana 2022 and the PM KUSUM Yojna, launched in 2019. Under the scheme, the state government has been targeting to provide solar powered irrigation pumps with 3HP and 5HP capacity to over 51,000 farmers. This scheme is implemented by the Energy Department of Chhattisgarh State Government.
Solar pumps have emerged as an alternative to conventional pumps, reducing dependence on unreliable electric supply or high fuel costs. The Chhattisgarh Govt has been prioritizing Scheduled Tribes (ST) farmers, who are among the most marginalized in the irrigation access. Chhattisgarh already has been a leader in the deployment of solar pumps across the country with over 30 per cent of India’s solar pump deployments coming from the Saur Sujala Yojana (SSY) scheme. SSY provides about 90–95 per cent subsidy on solar pumps, which is available to any farmer with more than one acre of land ownership. Under SSY, more than 80,000 pumps have been installed in the last five years.
Speaking at the event Shri. Sanjeev Jain, Chief Engineer, Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA) said – “There is an urgent need to shift the energy loads of the agricultural activities to solar energy, switching to Solar Pump makes more economic sense today than ever before and CREDA is leading & committed towards the cause.”
SwitchON Foundation through its SEWA network has been aiming to build, nurture and strengthen the interlinkages between Energy Water and Agriculture while keeping women leadership and livelihood of the farmers in the centre. Currently the SEWA Network has been a major success across Jharkhand and West Bengal, with over 25 active member organizations across various districts of the states. The Group has been on a mission to promote the use of solar water pumps along with micro irrigation technologies, facilitate community driven water management and Introduce and encourage Climate Smart Agriculture across eastern India.
Through the SEWA Program the group aims to create an ecosystem, for the promotion of solar pumps with micro irrigation, water and soil conservation – in order to achieve the doubling of farmer income while conserving natural resources, adapting and mitigating climate change. It will also ensure exchange of ideas and discussion on the challenges and opportunities in promotion of sustainable agricultural practices.
This discussion was also attended by the farmer community with over 25 organizations adding to the voices from the ground, along with Senior Govt / Administration officers, Foundations, NGOs working alongside CREDA.
Shri. Vinay Jaju MD SwitchON Foundation said – “We are extremely happy to work under the leadership of Govt of Chhattisgarh in promoting solar pumps, water conservation and sustainable agriculture through the SEWA Network. where we want to create evidence from the ground through our various projects in collaboration with CREDA and other line departments to ensure marginal ST women farmers benefit across the state for sustainable development across Chhattisgarh.”
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