The Modi government’s Rs 1.44-lakh-crore solar irrigation scheme announced in the recent Budget is inspired by the success of the world’s first solar pump irrigators’ cooperative formed in a very ordinary village in Kheda district in Gujarat. A small group of six farmers of the village is wholly responsible for this experiment, reports Business Line.
The farmers of the Dundhi village were provided with technology and money by two international agricultural research organizations. Later, the cooperative entered into a 25-year power purchase agreement with local electricity distribution utility.
The project has of late caught on and people from neighboring villages have begun getting involved in it.