In 2019, the Maharashtra government announced that it would issue a warrant for the three-day-old water pump within the next three years. The pumps are also calculated on the direction of 22 gigawatts renewable energy (GW) by 2022 set for the state under the 2018 National Electricity Plan.

Pumps use renewable energy, pumping agricultural water during the day. Some villages in Maharashtra only get electricity at night, so the power to pump water during the day is important to local farmers.

“I don’t have to go to the farm at night to pump water (now) … There is no fear of getting electricity,” said Manisa Pawar, owner of a two-hectare farm in Kalsambhar, 59 km from Beed regional headquarters.

Pawar paid 10% of the cost – Rs16,570 – for the installation of a solar power pump on his farm in October 2020. Since then, he says, he has been able to plant vegetables and sorghum (jowar) in addition to the Karif crop and fodder he has managed in the previous summer months.

Officials at the start-up agency, Mahavitaran (also known as MSEDCL), say 61,069 solar pumps have been installed under the scheme since December 3, 2020. More than half of them, 32078, in the Marathwada drought region with an average of 700mm rain and water underground below 400-500 ft, according to farmers and reports.

Source: Money Control