Agriculture has been the life blood of the Indian economy for ages and the socio-cultural practices are closely tied with the same. It is such a large part of the Indian psyche that even the uninitiated know that for the farmer, his land and his agricultural tools are the most important resources he will ever have and the success or failure of a year’s worth of work depends on the monsoons. A failed monsoon is a death sentence for the majority of Indian farmers.
However, this dependence on environmental factors is being overcome thanks to innovative agricultural practices and technological advancements. Projects like Consultative Group for International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) are working in villages across East and West Africa, Latin America, South and South-East Asia to create “climate-smart” villages. The objective is to create a food secure future by overcome existing agricultural patterns that are not sustainable in the long run, given the energy and land fertility constraints.
Currently agricultural practices like excessive use of fertilisers and energy needs fulfilled by fossil fuels, add to the problems faced by farmers rather than solving them. Dependence on ground water and rainfall, both of which are unreliable at best due to depleting water tables and climatic unpredictability, also make a profitable income from agriculture a perilous endeavor.
The solar energy pump is one such technological innovation being used in villages across Haryana and Punjab and it helps in various ways. It reduces the dependence on grid provided electricity and cuts down the cost involved in the irrigation process, thereby increasing the profit that the farmer is able to earn from each harvest. The introduction of climate-smart methods like laser-guided land leveling, measurement of soil moisture, precision of seeding and the like, have made a substantial difference in conservation of the natural resources involved in agriculture and in increasing the overall output during each harvest. The newer generation of farmers is well aware of the odds it faces while trying to make agriculture a profitable economic activity. This has led it to embrace the new agricultural methods that are ultimately profit-bearing.
Could it be possible to post pictures n information about the users of /source of supply of solar pumps.
Its commendable and revolutionary.