Shakti Pumps (Bangladesh) Limited will set up an assembly unit of the company to raise the number of solar pumps for irrigation.
"We have a plan to set up an assembly unit of Shakti solar pumps in Bangladesh as the country needs a huge number of solar pumps for irrigation. It will be easy for Bangladeshi people to get the pumps with low cost prices," Chetan Kanojia, Managing Director of Shakti Pumps (Bangladesh) Ltd said while attending 'Bangladesh Clean Energy Summit 2019' held recently in Dhaka organized by the Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL).
The India-based company is supplying solar pumps in Bangladesh through Gazi Renewable Energy, Solargao Limited, Scube Technology and Sherpa Power.
Solar pumps can provide sustainable solutions without requiring any fuel, reduce carbon emission and save millions in foreign currency.
According to market insiders, an increased number of people are getting interested in solar irrigation pumps due to their financial viability and lower cost. A farmer has to pay Tk 3,000-Tk 4,000 for each bigha of land as irrigation charge during a crop season for diesel or electricity run pump, whereas for solar irrigation pumps it is Tk 2,500-Tk 2,800.
The potential of solar irrigation system in Bangladesh is huge. The average capacity of a solar irrigation pump is 18.5 Kw and it can irrigate 130 bighas of land. The pump of 18.5 kW size is capable of lifting 25 - 30 Lac liters of water per day in local solar irradiation condition.
Under IDCOL solar irrigation programme, pumps with 3 -18.5 kW capacity and dynamic head ranging from 10-18 meters are being used.
"We are very happy with the IDCOL initiative and we feel that if other countries especially African nation will follow the same Irrigation Model of IDCOL then it will resolve their water and food sufficiency problem. People from grassroots to upper level have expressed their interest on Shakti products especially on solar pumps. Also, international delegates have asked about our solar pump project. Such kind of summit or exhibition should be organized in every six-month interval or yearly," Chetan Kanojia said in a statement.
Shakti Pumps (Bangladesh) Ltd, is supplying to a partner organization (PO) of IDCOL has so far supplied 15 MW solar-powered irrigation pumps and aims to take the number to 50 MW by the end of 2020.
Now, it has covered a total of 57,000 bighas of land of 32,000 farmers to produce 69,000 metric tonnes of rice per year.
Shakti Solar pumps have three years payback as per their study in Senegal and the life of Solar Water Pumping System is 20 years because of High Efficient Stainless Steel Pumps.
"I have already visited some 20-25 districts of Bangladesh. The land and atmosphere of Bangladesh is very convenient to use solar water pumps as the ground water level is not very far from the surface. Due to environment friendly and extra ordinary benefits, we are currently exporting our solar pumps in 50 countries around the world".
Electricity is the key to economic growth and development for a country like Bangladesh. And to reduce the burden on the national grid, the country needs to develop solar energy to meet the demand for fuel without affecting the environment.
Expansion of solar irrigation will cut dependency on diesel and electricity. Presently, Bangladesh has 1.34 million diesel pumps and these consume at least 1.0 million tonnes of diesel worth $900 million per year. The government provides huge subsidy to keep its price affordable for farmers.
On the other hand, about 3.20 lakh pumps are run by electricity to irrigate crops on a total of 54.48 lakh hectares in the dry season and some 1,700-1,800 megawatts of electricity are consumed for irrigating rice fields.
Most of the solar pumps have been installed in the north and eastern regions as during the dry season, farmers cannot irrigate crop fields properly as they do not get water in their shallow tube wells for lowering of the water table in the aquifer.
Farmers also remain anxious about whether they can irrigate the fields timely. Now, they do not face any problem in getting water during the dry season.
The installation of a 18.5 kW solar pump requires 15 decimal. The scarcity of land makes solar-based irrigation on a large scale difficult. So, a well plan should be taken during installing these devices for getting maximum benefit.
"We are installing the solar panels in such a way that the farmers can grow other crops on the land used for the solar irrigation pump."
Solar pumps are contributing to improve farmers' livelihoods, increase climate change resilience of the agriculture sector and strengthen food security. Smooth supply of water for irrigation will help to increase agricultural productivity.
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