Press Release
- Impact of ‘GRAM 2016’
- 9,687 solar irrigation pumps installed in 2016-17
- Rajasthan ranks number 1 in the installation of solar irrigation pumps.
Jaipur, 11 May: Thanks to the exposure given to solar irrigation pumps during the Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet (GRAM) at Jaipur in 2016,a record number of 9,687 solar irrigation pumps were installed during 2016-17. What is interesting is that post-GRAM in November a whopping number of 6046 pumps have been installed in a period of only four and a half months. While during the year pre-GRAM period of seven and a half months only 3641 pumps had been installed. This was informed by the Director Horticulture, Government of Rajasthan, Mr. Vijay Pal Singh.
Mr. Singh further informed that the spurt in the installation of the solar irrigation pumps was owing to widespread publicity that it received while being exhibited at the ‘Smart Farm’ in the ‘GRAM 2016’. It is to be noted that over 50,000 farmers had come to GRAM where they got the benefit of observing live demonstrations of such pumps. The farmers have greatly benefited by adopting this green technology for energy.
Director Horticulture also informed that yet another impact of GRAM was visible with a whopping number of 54 companies participating in Expression of Interest (EoI) in the current financial year for setting up solar irrigation pumps. The technical evaluation is under progress. Last year in 2016-17 only 18 companies had participated in the EoI. With the increased participation of companies for such irrigation pumps it is expected that the farmers will have to contribute considerably less towards the farmers’ share while the State Government too will have to spend less in the subsidy.
As of today Rajasthan ranks number 1 in the installation of solar irrigation pumps. With 9687 solar irrigation pumps installed during last year — it is worth noting that for the past many years only around 20,000 solar irrigation pumps had been installed.