Indian farmers use ... solar energy to water plants

Millions of people in India live on agriculture but serious drought in recent years has made them struggling to find water for crops.

Under the heat of 40 C poisoning of summer in India, rainwater evaporates quickly. Farmers have to use expensive and polluted diesel pumps to reach groundwater.

Khethworks is trying to overcome this problem by exploiting one of the causes of drought : intense sunshine, available almost all year round.

Indian farmers water the plants.(Photo: medium.com).

CNN reported that Khethworks has developed a solar-powered irrigation system that allows farmers to irrigate crops without relying on expensive seasonal or fuel rains.

'Solar energy is very suitable for irrigation because on the sunniest days, plants need the most water, you will also get the most water ,' said Khethworks co-founder and CEO Kaite Taylor. share.

The rainy season in India lasts only 4 months. For the rest of the year, farmers are forced to find other ways to supply water to crops. They often use diesel pumps with operating costs up to 150 USD (about 3.3 million VND) for each growing season. This is a big expense for the country where the annual per capita income is less than 2,000 USD (about 46 million VND). Many people using Khethworks system have not even earned enough money.

"They just can't afford to buy fuel to run the pump in the summer when the weather is extremely hot," she said. But this is also the highest price of agricultural products. '

Khethworks is a project initiated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) and registered as a company in Pune city, Mumbai, India in 2016. This is a golden opportunity for the solar energy business at land. This South Asian country. In many areas of India, the Sun shines up to 300 days a year. The government run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is promoting this renewable energy industry.

Currently, India's solar power output has increased from less than 4 gigawatt in 2015 to nearly 30 gigawatts - accounting for nearly 8% of total electricity consumption. The government is aiming to reach 100 gigawatts of solar power by 2022.

Khethworks solar pump system.(Photo: Khethworks).

While the Khethworks system is not a cheap option, it requires $ 540 to build and activate, said Taylor, in the long run it is still more economical than buying diesel to run pumps. The company is also working with financial partners to minimize costs. This compact, portable pump can provide farmers with another source of income if they do not use them. They can use pumps for construction or for rent.

Not only lack of irrigation water, about 600 million Indians are suffering from lack of drinking water. The groundwater in India is nearing its end. This is the biggest problem of the second most populous country in the world. Decades of digging deep wells to find water in the traditional way mean India is running out of groundwater.

As India moves towards greater urbanization and millions more people move to cities, the demand for water is increasing. Cities began looking for more distant water, pumping it through hundreds of kilometers.

100 million people, including big city residents like Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad, will soon live in cities without groundwater. This situation is also affected by climate change, making water supply more limited. Monsoon rains are more erratic, while droughts are more frequent, threatening farmers' crops. Short winters, while longer and hotter summers are thawing in the Himalayas, which flow into rivers in northern India.