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Solar Pumps in India Save Water, Increase Farmers' Income

By Shanna Edberg
October 21, 2015

In Gujarat and elsewhere in India, the Consultative Group for International Agriculture Research’s program on climate change, agriculture, and food security is replacing diesel-powered water pumps with solar-powered ones on local farms to help farmers in India’s breadbasket regions adapt to climate change. The innovations, which also include no-till planting, laser-guided leveling of fields, and crop sensors to assess plant health, reduce water and fertilizer use, improve food security, increase resilience in the face of unpredictable weather, and improve farmers’ incomes.

Climate Protection: Replaces diesel-powered pumps with solar-powered pumps to reduce carbon emissions** Energy & Mobility: **Increases solar energy available to the grid Resilience: Allows for a predictable water supply for growing crops in case the rains fail Food & Water: Provides incentive to pump less water, since energy can be sold back to the grid; increases crop yields Jobs & Assets: Increases farmers’ income by allowing them to sell surplus solar energy back to the grid** Health, Well-Being, & Safety: **Decreases air pollution from diesel fuel** Connection: **Allows farmers to work together, sharing conservation practices and contributing to the energy grid

This post is part of a series on examples of ​multisolving​, or climate-smart policies that simultaneously work to mitigate climate change while providing co-benefits such as the ones described above. The multiple benefits analysis was done using the ​FLOWER framework​.