Presentation by A Kishore, International Food Policy Research Institute, at the CCAFS Workshop on Institutions and Policies to Scale out Climate Smart Agriculture held between 2-5 December 2013, in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Solar Pumps: Harnessing the Sun for an Evergreen Revolution in Bihar
1. Solar Pumps: Harnessing the Sun
for an Ever-green Revolution in
Bihar
Avinash Kishore, PK Joshi and Divya Pandey
2nd December, 2013
Avinash Kishore, PK Joshi and Divya Pandey
2. Frequent droughts have severely affected
agriculture in Bihar in recent years
680
40.00
630
30.00
Value of Paddy (2004-05 prices)
% deviation from mean rainfall
580
20.00
530
10.00
480
0.00
430
-10.00
380
-20.00
330
-30.00
280
-40.00
230
180
-50.00
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
3. Drought in 33 of 38 districts in 2013. Severe drought in 9
districts
Year (NSS Round)
Head Count Ratio (HCR)
2004-05 (61st)
55.7%
2009-10 (66th)
55.3%
2011-12 (68th)
34.06%
2013-14***
~45%***
If 2009-10 is a any guide, drought this year will push >15
million people below the poverty line in Bihar
Effective drought proofing is essential to poverty reduction in
the state
4. “The Energy-squeeze” in Bihar’s Agriculture
Groundwater is the best bet against droughts
(Dhawan, 1986)
But groundwater is economically scarce in Bihar
• >90% farmers depend on diesel pump-sets
• Price of diesel has nearly doubled in last eight years
• Farmers practice deficit irrigation in Rabi, wait for rains in
Kharif and seldom grow summer crops
Affordable access to groundwater is essential
for drought-proofing
5. Policy response
Easy subsidy on diesel pumps
Bihar
does not need more pumps; it needs cheaper
energy
Subsidy on diesel in drought years
~$0.15
billion in 2013 @ 40cents/liter
But
Low
awareness & poor off-take (IWMI, 2012)
High leakage & delayed in payments, other hassles
Water buyers are often left-out; same for tenants
Diesel subsidy is poorly targeted, ineffective
6. Could Solar pumps be a solution to “energysqueeze”?
In spite of its high
capital cost, lifecycle cost of a solar
pump is lower than
a diesel pump now
8. The solar pump experiment in Bihar
34 defunct PTWs revived in Nalanda district using
solar panels in March-April 2012
Each tubewell draws power from six solar panels
• Covers ~100 sq. meter of land
Runs a 7.5 hp submersible pump with a discharge
capacity of 70m3/hr
9. Bihar government’s solar pump experiment
(cont’d)
Pumps are installed in lands donated by farmers
WUAs formed to manage the PTW
• The land donor is often the de-facto manager of the PTW
Irrigation fee of Rs. 400/ha/watering
• The WUA (the land-owner) keeps 90% irrigation fee for
repair and maintenance
10% is deposited with the department
10. Our Study
We picked 16 of the 34 command by a lottery
10 beneficiaries selected randomly for each
PTW(total 160 farmers)
5 non-beneficiary farmers also selected on
each PTW (total 80 farmers)
Farmers surveyed in
Rabi 2012-13: 3 rounds of recall surveys
Kharif 2013: 1 round (around transplantation)
11. Sampling and data collection (cont’d)
In rabi season, data was collected for
3 solar plots of the solar farmers
1 non-solar plot of the solar farmers
1 non-solar plot of the non-solar farmers
In kharif season, data was collected for paddy cultivation for
Solar and non-solar plots of solar farmers
all plots of non-solar farmers
Monthly pump operation data collected from logbooks of the
16 operators in all 4 rounds of survey
13. Operational setting of the solar pumps (cont’d)
Average design command area of solar pumps – 8.34 ha
Actual area served
• 3.5 ha in rabi and
• 4 ha in kharif
Average # beneficiaries/SPTW = 16 (against potential 35)
Pumps not operated for 12 days/month
Few instances of technical glitches
Defective pipe network and lack of demand (specially in
summer) are the main causes of under-utilization of SPTWs
14. Benefit from SPTW: Wheat
Variables of
interest
Solar plots of solar
farmers
Non-solar plot of
solar farmers
Non-solar plot of
non-solar farmers
Wheat yield
(kg/ha)
2973.663
2565.885
2624.638
Irrigation cost
for wheat
(Rs/ha)
821.4672
2946.771
3238.522
Net benefit from solar pumps to wheat growers = ~Rs. 7000/ha
Gross benefit/SPTW in Rabi = Rs. 25,000
16. 2013: one of the worst drought years in Bihar
Solar pumps are helping
Irrigation cost for nursery preparation & maintenance
• Solar farmers – 186 Rs/ha
• Non-solar farmers – 451 Rs/ha
100% transplantation in command area by 31st August
• yet to happen in 27% of non-command areas
Irrigation costs (up to 31st August)
Solar plots – 671 Rs/ha
Non-solar – 3137 Rs/ha
17. SPTWs were severely underutilized in summer
season
Variables of interest
Solar farmers
Non-solar farmers
Farmers who grew
summer crops
57 % of solar farmers
28 % of non-solar
farmers
Avg. Area under summer
crops (ha)/farmer
0.06
0.02
• Lack of complimentary inputs (labor, credit and experience)
• Increase in area under summer crops is crucial for viability of
solar pumps
18. Our findings indicate that irrigation through solar pumps
benefits farmers by -
Increasing yield
Lowering irrigation costs
Increasing cropping intensity
Mitigating impact of drought by enabling timely
transplantation
encouraging area under water intensive crops like Rabi
maize and vegetables that offer higher returns to land
19. But SPTWs are underutilized
High capital cost; near zero operational cost
• High capacity utilization is essential to make solar pumps viable
Possible Remedies
• Investment in water distribution network of PTWs
Command area and # beneficiaries will double
• Incentives for pump operators to increase capacity utilization
• Credit and extension support to farmers to encourage summer crops
Experiment with subsidized private solar pumps
20. Way forward
5556 old PTWs in Bihar
• Mostly defunct due to poor power supply and expensive diesel
900 of them to be revived with a loan from NABARD
3000 new PTWS to be built
With proposed design, all of them will fail
Adding solar panels will cost $ 15,000 or ~$
2000/ha of command area in capital cost
Additional benefit = $ 500-700/ha/year
» ($ 150 in rabi, $ 150 in kharif, $ 400 in summer)
Pay-back period of ~3-6 years + effective drought
proofing