By Soumya Sarkar
JHARKHAND — The Chotanagpur Plateau in eastern India, criss-crossed with streams, once was lush green even in winter.
But increasingly erratic rainfall in recent years has made life much harder for the region’s impoverished indigenous subsistence farmers, most of whom rely on monsoon rains between June and September to grow a thirsty rice crop.
“Our land is rich, but our people are poor,” said Gagu Oraon, a farmer from the Oraon indigenous community in Tukutoli, a village that has struggled with low yields and crop failure.
But now clean-energy technology is providing help, in the form of a new solar-powered irrigation system that helps about 30 local farmers get dependable water, allowing them to diversify their crops without producing planet-warming emissions.
Along with rice, the farmers now are growing vegetables and selling the surplus — something that is providing more income and stability at home, Oraon noted. “For young people in the village, it’s a relief not migrating for work,” he said.
A rising number of Indian farmers are turning to solar-powered irrigation, which agricultural experts say can help communities feed their families and generate income while battling climate threats — all without producing more planet-warming emissions.
As part of a project by the Transform Rural India foundation (TRI), a non-profit based in New Delhi, farmers in Tukutoli installed a solar system that pumps water from a small rivulet and provides reliable irrigation to about 30 acres (12 hectares).
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The farmers can control the amount of water that goes to their rice crops and also grow vegetables such as cauliflower, eggplant, okra and cabbage.
“Tribal communities, who typically do not have access to irrigation, are among the most vulnerable to climate risks,” said Anas Rahman, a researcher with the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a New Delhi-based think-tank.
“Providing access to irrigation is important as a climate adaptation measure.”
Solar pumps can be the main pillar for a new vision of more climate-friendly agricultural development, he added.
In the uplands of Chotanagpur Plateau and other parts of Jharkhand, temperatures have been rising and rainfall patterns have become more unpredictable in recent decades, a phenomenon that climate experts attribute to global warming.
A 2018 study by researchers from the Birla Institute of Technology Mesra and Central University of Jharkhand found a “declining trend of cumulative rainfall” in the region between 1984 and 2014.
Irrigation can help stabilise crop production in the face of climate change, farming experts say, and solar-powered systems have advantages over diesel systems and rainfed farming.
“Diesel contributes to carbon emissions,” said Satyabrata Acharyya, a development expert at Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN), a non-profit working in Jharkhand.
“Also tribal farmers living in remote areas find it difficult to travel long distances to buy diesel from fuel stations,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Solar energy is available on-site, the machinery is easy to maintain and it is clean energy,” he added.
Until they got their irrigation system, many men from the village of Chandrapur, home to about 100 families from the Munda indigenous community, migrated to places like Kerala and Punjab states in search of work and wages.
Two years ago, rice farmers in the village on Chotanagpur Plateau banded together with TRI to install a solar-powered irrigation system.
“Many of us are now cultivating cauliflowers that fetch a good price in the market,” said Mangra Bhengra, a young farmer who runs and maintains the village’s solar pump.
“Who needs to migrate if you can make money in the village?” he asked. — Thompson Reuters Foundation
