The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) recently rolled out a massive solar-pump programme called the PM-KUSUM scheme.
Here is an overview of the implications of the scheme and the necessary changes to be made.
What is the scheme about?
The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) scheme has a target to set up 25,750 megawatts (MW) solar capacity by 2022 to power irrigation pumps.
The approved scheme comprises of three components:
setting up of 10,000 MW of decentralised ground / stilt-mounted grid-connected solar or other renewable energy based power plants
installation of 17.5 lakh standalone solar agriculture pumps
solarisation of 10 lakh grid-connected solar agriculture pumps
It comes with central financial support of close to Rs 34,000 crore.
What will be the incremental change?
25,750 MW solar capacity can power about 11.5 million 3 HP (horsepower) pumps or 7 million 5 HP pumps.
[At present, nearly 30 million irrigation pumps are estimated to be operating in India.
Of this, 21 million are electric and 9 million are diesel-based.]
The KUSUM scheme can potentially convert one-third to one-fourth of all irrigation pumps into solar-powered pumps in a short period of 3 years.
This rapid transition is possible as the scheme makes buying pumps extremely affordable for medium-sized and large farmers.
It comes with 30% subsidy from the central and state government each, and there is a provision to take bank loans for 30% of the cost.
So, farmers have to shell out only 10% of the cost to buy solar pumps.
What are the benefits?
The scheme is good to increase farmers’ income in the short term.
As solar power is cheaper than diesel off-grid, solar pumps will reduce the cost of irrigation significantly.
The effect is substantial in states like Bihar where farmers largely use diesel pumps.
This will allow farmers to grow more crops (even the water-intensive ones), at a lower cost of cultivation, thereby increasing income.
In Punjab, electric pumps dominate and the power subsidy to the agricultural sector is about Rs. 7000 crore annually.
So, solarisation of agriculture feeders will reduce the subsidy burden significantly.
Farmers’ income will also be augmented by selling electricity from solar plants on to the discoms.
The most important part of the solar pump is that the solar cycle matches the irrigation cycle.
So, farmers will get assured irrigation for at least 6 hours during day time, and they do not have to remain awake at night to irrigate their farms.
[As grid supply is more assured at night in most states.]
What is the need for caution?
Agriculture in India has become increasingly dependent on groundwater for irrigation.
Nearly 90% of India’s total groundwater draft is used to irrigate 70% of the country’s total irrigated land.
This has helped increase productivity and farmer income.
However, it has also led to massive overexploitation of aquifers.
Both the quality and quantity of groundwater are depleting at an alarming rate, and the condition of aquifers has reached a crisis point.
The problem of overexploitation of groundwater is driven by the availability of subsidised (often, free power for irrigation).
This creates little incentives to use power or water efficiently.
States like Punjab, Haryana, TN, etc, with very low tariffs for agriculture, have the highest share of semi-critical, critical and overexploited aquifers.
This is unsustainable in every aspect, including the long-term future of farmers and food security of the country.
In this context, there is an inbuilt cost factor in diesel pumps, due to the cost of diesel, that restricts wasteful use of water.
Replacing these with the far cheaper off-grid solar pumps, with no running expenses, has a high possibility of overuse, leading to groundwater depletion.
What are the shortfalls in KUSUM scheme?
In the above context, the KUSUM scheme has also not provided any provision to utilise surplus power from off-grid pumps to light rural homes and businesses.
In the case of solarisation of agriculture feeders, the subsidy burden for states is also likely to reduce significantly.
So state governments have even less incentive to increase agriculture tariff to conserve water and hence, gross overexploitation of groundwater is likely to continue.
Overall, the KUSUM scheme fails to promote efficient irrigation and incorporate explicit and strict measures against groundwater exploitation.
The scheme only explores the possibility of its convergence with state-level schemes for promoting the micro-irrigation systems and energy-efficient pumps.
It does not mandate the same.
What does this call for?
The current practice of overexploitation of groundwater for irrigation has to be changed, with high priority.
If this is not done, the World Bank predicts that around 60% of the aquifers in India will be in a critical state by 2032.
Large-scale deployment of solar pumps, without a comprehensive plan to monitor and control water usage, is likely to make this prediction a reality.
The KUSUM scheme will thus have to be redesigned and positioned as a water and agricultural scheme, and not merely as a renewable-energy scheme.
How can this be done?
The central government could push massive irrigation reforms in states through the KUSUM scheme.
It should only be extended to states willing to take strong measures to improve irrigation efficiency and control exploitation of groundwater.
Secondly, it must mandate micro-irrigation for solar pump beneficiaries.
Groundwater extraction must be closely monitored and strict mandates on pump size and bore-well depth must be set.
Supporting low water-intensive crops in water-scare regions, too, is crucial.
Deployment of off-grid solar pumps must be restricted to areas where the grid has not reached and groundwater is abundant.
Even in groundwater-abundant areas, off-grid solar pumps must be used for rural electrification.
Otherwise, it should be developed into community-based water sale models to maximise utilisation and reduce water wastage.
Solarisation of rural feeders should be accompanied by a gradual increase in electricity tariffs.
This is crucial to control groundwater exploitation and reduce the burden of agricultural subsidy.
