Bhopal: Meet Anil Pachauri, a farmer from Lamhetaghat village of Jabalpur district, whose agricultural income skyrocketed after he went for Solar Pump Scheme. His annual farm income has spiralled from paltry Rs. 25000 to over Rs. 3 lakh, thanks to Chief Minister Solar Pump Scheme. He is not the only farmers reaping benefit of the scheme as a total of 7,000 solar pumps of different capacities have been installed in farms.
Success story of Pachauri, a farmer from Lamhetaghat village of Jabalpur district, is not a lone case, as scores of farmers across the state, who have installed solar pumps on their agricultural land, shares the same luck.
Pachauri owns 5 acres of agricultural land had been taking up traditional farming on this land. Using conventional method, he could only cultivate wheat and gram once a year. And as there was no means of proper irrigation, his agricultural income remained between Rs 25000 and Rs 30000 per year.
To irrigate his farm, which is located approximately 800 meters away from Narmada river, and also lacks electrical connection, Pachauri was drawing water through pipelines with the help of diesel pump. Approximately 250 litres of diesel was used in a month, which was a huge burden on him, besides it also led to air pollution. Very often, diesel and pipe were stolen from his farm. Due to varying level of water level in Narmada, he had to keep shifting his pipes many times.
One day he read about Mukhya Mantri Solar Pump Scheme in a newspaper. However, he was very apprehensive going for it thinking also Solar systems might be expensive. He was also not sure about the amount of electricity generated by it. However, keeping his fears away, he contacted M P Urja Vikas Nigam office in Jabalpur district. After all his confusions were cleared he got himself registered for Solar Pump applied for it with a demand draft of Rs 500. He got a bore well dug in his farm. He deposited the remaining beneficiary share of Rs 67,100
As soon as the solar pump was installed in his farm, he changed his pattern of agriculture as sufficient water was available for irrigation. His annual income spiralled to Rs 3,50,000 and now he is engaged in cultivation of onions, potatoes, chillies, coriander, tomatoes, broccoli and chickpeas. Ample water availability also helped him to undertake rose farming. He is also growing coconut on the same land.
With the installation of solar pump, he also got rid of worries related to diesel, pipes safety, labourer and also pollution caused by diesel pump. Now, he has pollution-free healthy electricity, which is free of cost. There is no fear of power cut.
He is irrigating his farm without any obstruction and stress. In Pachauri’s words “If I would not have gone for a solar pump, then I would have given up farming.” This is a perfect gift of government to the farmers. He was recently honored by the Chief Minister for excelling in agriculture production using solar pump.
A total of 7,000 solar pumps of different capacities have been installed in the fields in Jabalpur. This amounts to solar panels of 26 MW capacities. This scheme will be useful in the goal of doubling the income of farmers of Madhya Pradesh.
Understanding the problems of the farmers, the Prime Minister and state Chief Minister have launched Chief Minister Solar Pump Scheme in the state. By taking advantage of the scheme, farmers will be able to make agriculture a profit-making business by cultivating commercial crops and by increasing their agricultural production.
During the initial phase of the Solar Pump Programme, approximately 2800 solar pumps were installed between the year 2014 to 2016 in various tribal hostels and villages for drinking water, and in various nurseries of forest department and agricultural farms of agriculture department for irrigation.
Under the Chief Minister Solar Pump Scheme, subsidy up to 85 to 90 percent is being given to the farmers for setting up solar pumps ranging from 01 to 05 Horse Power(hp) to farmers, using subsidy from both union and state government.
