Solar power has brought hopes to thousands of farmers of the country, who have long been fighting with severe power crisis and high diesel price to run water pumps for irrigation of their farmlands.
“I am no longer worried by frequent power-cuts or increasing diesel price. My solar panel gives me enough electricity to pump out enough underground water for my lands,” said Salam, a farmer of Bamanshur area of Keraniganj upazila.
Abdus Salam now irrigates his own lands and the lands of other farmers at low cost with his water pump.
Each farmer like Salam had to spend up to Tk 300 on electricity and up to Tk 600 on diesel a day to operate a shallow machine for irrigation. Frequent power outages and diesel crisis frustrated many farmers as production costs often go higher than the costs of yields.
Many farmers of Bamanshur area could not cultivate their lands due to high irrigation cost, said Salam.
He said things became different after he luckily met a group of teachers of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), thanks to the upazila agriculture office.
As per the suggestions of the teachers, Salam set up a solar panel which changed his life.
The BUET teachers run a project called Low Cost Solar Based Irrigation System (LCSBIS) with an aim to cut dependence of farmers on electricity or diesel.
Professor SM Lutful Kabir, director of the Institute of Information and Communication Technology (IICT), said they set up a solar irrigation system at Keraniganj at Tk 8 lakh in March.
He informed that 12 solar panels were set up in the area which can produce up to 2,000 watts of electricity a day, enough to pump out two lakh litres of water.
The project, financed by Bangladesh Academy of Science, will continue for one year since their ultimate goal is to introduce a complete solar irrigation system.
Professor Kabir called upon the government and the private firms to come forward to setting up such projects to cut down the costs of crop production.
He suggested that such projects should be run in the country’s northern regions.
“If any farmer wants to set up solar panel individually, he can do it at a cost of Tk 5 lakh. One solar panel would be enough for irrigating 10 bighas of land if the underground water level is within 20 feet,“ he added.
Khonjon Mondol, another farmer of the area, said solar irrigation system greatly minimised the cost of paddy production.
Courtesy of Daily Sun
