| Sumario: | Solar irrigation pumps can bring significant benefits for food security, livelihoods, and the environment. They run on clean, renewable energy, with no reliance on costly and polluting fossil fuels, and once installed, they have no running costs – providing 1,400–2,200 hours of free, dependable energy per year, contributing to food security and boosting farmers’ incomes for decades. Farmers are understandably enthusiastic about the adoption of these pumps. However, the lack of running costs means there is no incentive to limit pumping, which can lead to the depletion of groundwater resources.
This is a particular concern in some parts of India. The country is the world leader in solar power for agriculture, with 93 percent of the global off-grid capacity deployed for agricultural use, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. Roughly 350,000 solar irrigation pumps are already installed. Yet these comprise just a tiny fraction of the 21 million irrigation pumps that exist across India and the government is working to massively expand the number of solar pumps. In 2019, it launched the ambitious PM-KUSUM initiative in an effort to ensure energy security for farmers. This involves a pledge to install more than 3.5 million standalone and grid-connected solar irrigation pumps.
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