Govt promotes solar pumps to cut farmers’ diesel costs
Patna: Amid efforts to deliver electricity to agricultural land and cut farmers’ dependence on diesel pump sets, the state government is promoting the use of solar pumps.
While one needs to spend something around Rs 1,500 to buy diesel to run a pump-set to irrigate one acre of arable land, in case of electricity-run or solar run pumps, the cost comes down to almost one-fourth of a diesel pump-set.
Bihar Renewable Energy Development Agency has taken the initiative to promote a special scheme that entails making these pumps available at a subsidised rate and also to ensure their proper upkeep for five years.
“We aim to provide at least 3,300 solar pumps this fiscal (2018-19) to the farmers willing to reap the benefits of the scheme,” Bihar Renewable Energy Development Agency director R. Lakshmanan told The Telegraph
According to the scheme details, the government would bear three-fourths of the solar pump cost for which farmers would have to deposit just one-fourth of the pump cost with the Bihar Renewable Energy Development Agency to avail benefits of the scheme.
A 2BHP solar pump, which is generally used for irrigation-related works, comes at a price of around Rs 2.3 lakh, market sources said and added that a solar pump has an average life of 20 to 25 years, if maintained properly.
The scheme has taken of the solar pumps’ installation and maintenance aspects.
The firm, which would supply the pumps under this scheme, will maintain the sets for five years without charging a penny from the beneficiary.
“According to our calculation, the beneficiary under this scheme would be able to recover the money invested as his share to avail the benefits within a year,” said the Bihar Renewable Energy Development Agency director and added that all the details and format of the application had been uploaded on the Bihar Renewable Energy Development Agency website, energy.bih.nic.in.
Terming the Bihar Renewable Energy Development Agency initiative a good one, Ran Vijay Yadav, a farmer from Banjariya in East Champaran, said the agency should take steps to publicise the details of the scheme so that more and more farmers can avail its benefits.
Source: telegraphindia
