Govt. Set to Unviel Solar Scheme for Farmers: R K Singh

The Indian government has announced that it plans to unveil a solar scheme for farmers that will guarantee a minimum annual income of Rs 1 lakh, as per power minister R K Singh.

The Minister informed the parliament during Question Hour that farmers will be able to use their land to install solar panels and the power generated will be bought by the government. For the impoverished farmers who do not have enough capital can lease the land to developers to set up the solar panels.

Under these situations, if the solar installation is carried out by the developers, the farmers will get allegedly 30-35 paise per unit to ensure an annual income of Rs 1 lakh. The guaranteed buyback of power by the government will work to inspire farmers to adopt solar energy in the areas where grid connection or power supply has been grim.

According to the minister written statement, the scheme is complete and will be launched within 15-20 days. The Minister also added that this scheme is part of the government’s target to double the income of farmers by 2022.

The Government has set a target of magnifying of farmers’ income by the year 2022 and constituted the Doubling of Farmers’ Income (DFI) in January 2019.

“The Committee has identified seven sources of income growth namely, improvement in crop productivity; improvement in livestock productivity; resource use efficiency or savings in the cost of production; increase in the cropping intensity; diversification towards high value crops; improvement in real prices received by farmers; and shift from farm to non-farm occupations,” informed the Economic survey.

The solar scheme is the latest addition in the government target which was set in 2017. The scheme can help shift cultivators away from agriculture and diversify their income sources and reduce unemployment during lean periods or off seasons while increasing the productivity of the farmlands in the process.