PROMOTING SOLAR IRRIGATION SYSTEM THROUGH PM-KUSUM: GOOD OR BAD FOR INDIA?

Agriculture is a critical sector of the Indian economy. Its contribution to the country’s GDP is however diminishing gradually over time. Currently agriculture contributes only around 17-18 percent as per the India Economic Survey 2018. Given that, the sector generally employs over half of the workforce and serves food to the whole nation, its importance cannot be stressed enough.

In addition to the above, agriculture has an important role to play in defining India’s climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. On one hand, agricultural production is highly climate-sensitive and dependent on the vagaries of nature, on the other, for certain states this sector has turned into a power guzzler. In these aforementioned states farmers rely predominantly on diesel and electric pumps for irrigation purposes, contributing to India’s total Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. Both diesel and electric pumps use fossil fuels and pollute the environment by emitting toxic fumes and GHGs respectively. Statistics reveal that approximately 14.33 million electric and 6.26 million diesel pump sets have been functioning in India since 2010-11. Excessive usage of these pump sets has led to uncontrolled groundwater extraction and has depleted groundwater reservoirs to dangerous levels. In India, about 89 percent of the groundwater extraction is accounted for irrigation that serves around 34 percent of the total cropped area. This implies huge groundwater extraction for smaller irrigated areas, which is another area of concern for India along with GHG emission. Thus, to correct the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) interaction and to achieve an environmentally sustainable economy, greater reliance on technological innovations and enlightened policymaking is required.

Government of India’s Response:

To combat climate change induced agricultural stresses, Government of India launched the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) scheme in February 2019 for farmers for installation of solar pumps with a total central assistance of INR 34422 crore. The scheme is implemented under the aegis of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and has the following three components:

Meanwhile, a study by HWWI (2005) shows that India has a high potential for solar PV water pumping irrigation system of 9-70 million, supporting the move of the central government towards solarization of irrigation systems.

Advantages:

The solar irrigation system is helpful for both farmers and governments in terms of their cost management.

• Farmers’ Side – Often it is found that in rural areas, the supply of electricity gets highly disrupted during day time, mainly because of the higher electricity demand in urban areas. This leads to lower irrigation facilities, and thus, declining crop production. This in turn, reduces farmer’s income. Consequently, despite having electric pumps, farmers have to rely on diesel pumps to maintain their basic livelihoods. A study done by the Indo-German Energy Programme shows that though the upfront cost for diesel pump sets is lower as compared to Solar PV pumps, higher maintenance cost and fuel prices make diesel pumps more expensive for farmers.
• Electricity Supplier’s Side – Almost free electricity supply for agricultural use along with commercial theft of electricity create huge financial burden on the state government and electricity suppliers, i.e., DISCOMs. 
• Government’s Side – Besides the DISCOMs, state governments have also got benefits from solarization of irrigation system as electricity cross-subsidy has cost them a significant amount. Further, solar irrigation through PM-KUSUM scheme can help India to achieve the goal of “Doubling Farmers’ Income” by increasing crop production through better irrigation facilities and also by selling the excess electricity generated from Solar PV panels to the grid.

Disadvantages:

Although solar irrigation makes the economy better by taking care of the ‘energy’ component in the WEF nexus, it may deteriorate the ecosystem. For instance, given that India is the World’s 13^th most water-stressed country, excessive ground water extraction because of consumption and exploitation for irrigation purposes may further exacerbate the water imbalance in the ecosystem. Specifically, the Western states (Punjab, Rajasthan) and some Southern states (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka) are more water-stressed than their Eastern counterparts (e.g. West Bengal, Bihar) in India.

Water Stressed Punjab vs. Water Abundant Bihar:

To illustrate this point further, it would be useful to look into states where solar irrigation systems have been adopted in large numbers such as in Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Bihar. While most of these states are water-stressed, Punjab is facing extreme groundwater scarcity. Two prominent staple foods – rice and wheat (water-intensive crops) are produced in high quantities in Punjab. In fact, Punjab ranks 3^rd and 2^nd for rice and wheat production respectively in the country. Although Bihar is rich with respect to groundwater level, it ranked 6^th for both these crops. A comparison of groundwater levels between Punjab and Bihar can be seen from Figure 1 & 2.

Figure 1 and Figure 2 depict that in Punjab groundwater depth is too high (10-40 m) during both pre- and post-monsoon periods. Increasing depth in the groundwater level implies rising water scarcity. By contrast, the situation is much different in the case of Bihar (generally, 2-10 m, even < 2 m in some places during the post-monsoon period). Despite having a low groundwater table in Punjab, the state contributes a higher share in the rice production of the country. One of the reasons for this higher rice production in Punjab may be the high Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy, which recently again hiked by 3.7 percent to INR 1,815 per quintal. This MSP hike for paddy in Punjab can lead to further exploitation of groundwater for maximizing rice production.

In Punjab, around 72 percent of the total cropped area is under rice production, of which 99.7 percent area was irrigated in 2015-16. Within the state, Bhatinda, Ferozpur, Ludhiana, and Sangrur have higher productions of both rice and wheat, where almost 100 percent cropped area is under irrigation for both. Around 32 and 65 percent of farmers used diesel and electric pumps respectively for irrigation during 2011-12. While in Bhatinda around 40.7 and 70 percent of farmers used to rely on diesel and electric pump sets respectively, the corresponding figures for Ferozpur were 38.4 and 54.6 percent, for Ludhiana 56 and 67 percent, and for Sangrur 5.8 and 86 percent respectively. Among these four districts, Ferozpur has the highest share of diesel pump sets usage (9.5%). Thus, the solarization of even diesel pumps alone in Punjab can lead to higher extraction of groundwater as farmers get independent access to electricity.

Limitations of Standalone Solar Pump Sets:

The Honourable Finance Minister during the Union Budget 2020 announced a plan for the expansion of PM-KUSUM by setting up an agricultural credit targets at INR 15 lakh crore to set up stand-alone solar pumps to 20 lakh farmers and grid-connected 15 lakh solar pumps to 15 lakh farmers. Stand-alone off-grid solar pumps have an evident disadvantage of water wastage because of the unstoppable water extraction while generating power.  This results in continuous groundwater extraction due to power generation at day time and also disturbs the soil moisture which is very crucial for crop production. Thus, the stand-alone off-grid pump does not seem  to be a good option, especially in water-scarce states like Punjab, at least till further improvements and innovations in the power storage capacity are made.

Capacity of a Solar Pump and Its Cost:

In addition to the aforementioned pros and cons, the advantage or disadvantage of a solar pump depends on its capacity. This further depends on a number of factors such as depth or distance from the water source, solar radiation, type of a pump (AC or DC), and maintenance, among others. There are three types of pumps: brushless direct current (DC) pumps, DC positive displacement pumps, and AC centrifugal pumps. Among these, the brushless DC pumps are the most efficient and have low maintenance costs, although they are the most expensive of the lot. In general, DC pumps are more efficient as they can operate during fluctuations and hence cost more than AC pumps. The discharge rate from a solar pump declines as the distance from water source increases (Benghanem et al. 2014). Thus, regions with lower water tables like Punjab will need solar pumps with higher capacity. Therefore, farmers in Punjab need to have access high capacity and high efficiency pumps such as 3HP or 5HP DC pumps which can provide at least 3-inch delivery of water in a minute and  take minimum time (1.5-2 hours) to irrigate the total cropped area under rice production (i.e., 2970 hectares) in Punjab. On an average, the water discharge rate of a 3HP and 5HP DC solar pump is 1.65 – 0.63 lac litres and 2.64 – 1 lac litres per day for a depth of water of 20-40 meters respectively, where water discharge declines with the depth of groundwater level. However, for installation of a solar pump with a 3000-watt solar panel, even after governments’ subsidy, farmers will have to pay a hefty amount to the tune of roughly INR 51,000 (for 3HP DC) and INR 75,000 (for 5HP DC).

Further, water discharge from the solar pumps vary with solar radiation, which in turn varies with the time of the day, month, and location. In states like Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, etc. where the number of cloudy days is more than the number of sunny days, it is difficult to implement the solar irrigation system. Meanwhile, proper maintenance and servicing of solar panels and pumps require adequate training of farmers which is hardly available in India. Although farmers used to get a five-years annual maintenance contract of solar pumps from insurance companies, it only covers the maintenance costs of day to day operation, cleaning, insurance, and security. However, the pump manufacturer is not responsible for any kind of breakage, damage, theft or malfunctioning due to misuse and alterations. Pump set thefts are quite a usual occurrence in the rural areas. Moreover, regular dusting of solar panels is required which is very difficult to do in a state like Rajasthan where sandstorms are a regular phenomenon.

Limitations of Grid-Connected Solar Irrigation System:

Apart from off-grid solar irrigation (component B), the other two components (A & C) of the PM-KUSUM scheme have been largely successful in areas where infrastructure needed for grid-connection is already present. In these cases, water wastage would not be an issue as farmers have an incentive to sell excess power to the grid at a reasonable rate. But in a state like Bihar, where share of electrified rural households is low possibly due to households’ inability to pay as well as lower accountability of DISCOMs, grid-connected solar irrigation schemes may not be successful. However, the solar irrigation system through a community-based pay-as-you-go model has shown significant success, where a community owns a solar pump and members of the community pay according to their usage. This success may be because of the absence of government subsidy on-grid electricity in rural areas and also because of the presence of greater number of marginal and small farmers.

Limitations of Subsidy-Based Schemes:

Further, innovations such as a solar irrigation system can only be successful when the government provides subsidised-schemes like PM-KUSUM. However, subsidization is not a good practice in the long run. A similar situation was witnessed in Punjab when MNRE reduced the subsidy from 80 percent (during 2000-01 to 2003-04) to 30 percent (during 2003-04 to 2012-13) as the cost of the solar panel started declining, installation of solar water pumps reduced drastically from 1,850 to almost zero. It increased to 105 solar pump installations in 2015-16 due to an increase in government subsidy of 40 percent from an earlier 10 percent in 2000-01.

Lastly, the solar irrigation system under PM-KUSUM scheme, especially the off-grid solar irrigation system may be successful in a water-rich state like Bihar, it is not that ideal for a water-scarce state like Punjab. This is particularly because solar pumps are inefficient beyond the maximum water level of 50 meters and the groundwater level in Punjab has already reached at 20-40 meters. Hence, the adoption of a solar irrigation system is a state-specific, even district-specific sensitive agenda, and governments in each layer should implement this scheme very cautiously.