Solar pump irrigation for sugarcane cultivation

Background
Water is the major input for agriculture. Since the surface water is depleting at faster rate, most of the farmers depend on ground water for irrigation. But pumping groundwater needs more fuel and electricity. Diesel, gasoline and kerosene pumps (including windmills) have been used traditionally to pump water. However, reliable solar pumps are now emerging in the market and are rapidly becoming more attractive than the traditional power sources. Wherever, the steady supply of fuel is a problem, use of solar pumps is getting momentum.

Solar powered pumps run by electricity generated through photo voltaic panels and does not depend on grid electricity or diesel. Solar power has a great advantage over other sources of energy because the plants mostly need irrigation when it is sunny. In solar pump system, there are two pumping equipments in the market; one is submersible and another one is centrifugal mono block. The best type of equipment for a particular pumping application depends on the daily water requirement, pumping head, suction head (for surface mounted pump-sets) and the water source.

Early adopter for the technology
Shri.Sivasubramanian from Ayangudi village of Pudukkottai district has adopted solar pump technology for irrigation in sugarcane cultivation. The farmer uses a 5 hp submersible pump at 220 feet depth. For installation, he has spent around Rs.6 lakhs the total expenditure; he received 30 per cent as subsidy from the Government.

He says “use of solar pump irrigation for sugarcane cultivation is very  effective  and environmentally safe and it reduces labour requirement”. Further, he reported that even though the initial cost for installation is huge, the break even point will be attained  within 4-5 years. Hence, after 5 years, the advantageous cost of solar pump system will be added in the profit side and will be helpful in the long run.

Scope and utility

• The operation of solar powered pumps is more economical mainly due to the lower operation and maintenance costs and has less environmental impact than pump powered by internal combustion Engines (ICE) and grid electricity operated pump.
• PV pumps can be used in different situation. It may be used as suction pump, floating pump, submerged pump and surface pump.
• It can adopted in remote locations where there is no access for electricity.
• Drip irrigation is a perfect companion to a solar pump. To minimize the initial cost a low flow irrigation system at low heads is required and of course the irrigation system has to be very water efficient

Status of the technology
This technology is not much popular among the Indian farmers since it needs higher initial investment and lack of awareness about solar energy. So, merely 0.1% of the farmer have adopted the technology and hence, it is has larger scope for further out-scaling.

Early adopter for solar pump	Solar panel used for harvesting sunlight