1000 Solar Pump installed across different locations for farmers in Haryana under the Pradhan Mantri Kusum Yojana

In a bid to reduce farmers’ reliance on diesel-based generators and make it easier for them to access electricity, Gautam Solar, one of India’s leading solar manufacturers, has installed solar pumps of 10 HP capacity at 1000 different locations in Haryana under the Pradhan Mantri Kusum Yojana. The government has set a target of installing 15,000 standalone solar pumps in Haryana within the first year.

The scheme was launched by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) in 2019. It seeks to provide subsidies on solar pumps to the farmers of our country. Under this scheme, the farmers only have to bear 40% of the pump’s cost, while the central and state governments subsidize the remaining 60% for solar pumps that have a capacity of up to 10 HP. However, in states like Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, the state governments have provided additional top-up on the subsidies, which has reduced the farmer’s share to 10%. This step has made the scheme more attractive for farmers and could contribute massively to the success of the project.

Being the only solar manufacturer in the country that produces all the solar pump components in-house, Gautam Solar can maintain a steady supply as per the demand and serves as a single point of service for the farmers so they do not have to run from vendor to vendor. The management at Gautam Solar firmly believes in the idea of “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” and seeks to reduce India’s dependency on countries like China for the procurement of materials that are necessary for production.

“At Gautam Solar, we’ve always emphasized the importance of spreading eco-consciousness and we believe that for substantial change to occur, we need to start at the grassroots i.e. our farmers. While farmers have been using diesel-based generators for quite some time, they’ve been doing so because of the lack of options. In practice, diesel-based generators not only cause pollution but are also costly in the long term. This problem will only be compounded in the future as fossil fuel sources are becoming scarce. Pradhan Mantri Kusum Yojana is a wonderful scheme that will catalyze the adoption of solar energy as the primary power source in the rural areas of the country. 

So far, we’ve worked with the farmers of Haryana and Rajasthan, who have shown great interest in the new solar technologies and have embraced the change wholeheartedly. We look forward to working with farmers in the other regions of the country as well and help them in their noble pursuit by gearing them with clean, efficient, and cost-effective irrigation equipment,” said Gautam Mohanka, MD, Gautam Solar.