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Dhaka Friday,  Mar 29, 2024

Solar solution for Jhenidah farmers

There is no power in the village, but an initiative by a farmers’ cooperative has boosted their hopes of bumper crop yields in the vicinity.

Two solar pumps have put smiles on growers’ faces as they can now irrigate paddy fields at much lower costs.

The pumps, first of their kind in Jhenidah, have been collected by local NGO Action in Development (AID) as a donation from Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) and set up in a field of Hardevpur village under Kaliganj upazila.

The two units use 80 solar panels, each producing 230 watts of electricity. The project has been supplying 14 lakh litres of water to 50 bigha land every day since January 15. Some 100 farmers are benefiting from the Tk 75 lakh scheme.

Coordinator Hasanuzzaman Babu of AID said local farmers had long been dreaming of irrigating their land by solar pumps as there was no electricity in the area, some 20 kilometres off Jhenidah town.

To turn the dream into a reality, farmers formed Hardevpur Krishi Unnayan Samity (HKUS) in 2009. The samity with the help of AID took up a project to this end.

Installed by Energypac Electronics, the pumps were commissioned on January 15 after they were handed over to the HKUS.

Farmers said they would have to pay irrigation bills to the NGO in three instalments under the project rules. During irrigation in the IRRI season, they will pay the NGO Tk 1,000 in advance, before harvesting another Tk 1,000 and after harvesting Tk 3,000 for each bigha of land.

But during the Boro season they will have to spend only Tk 1,400 and during the Robi season Tk 600 for irrigation. Earlier, they had to spend Tk 8,000 for irrigating each bigha of land by shallow tube wells run on diesel.

Farmer Sujan Biwas, who is growing IRRI on three bighas of land, said he expects a bumper yield this year as there was adequate supply of water from the solar pumps.

Another farmer Rafiqul Islam said they would be able to produce three crops a year under the new irrigation system at much lower costs.

Udoy Shankar Biswas, secretary of Hardevpur Krishi Unnayan Samity, said local framers had long been deprived of proper irrigation. With the success of the solar pumps, the samity is now planning to set up a mini solar grid project to supply electricity to the village households.

He hoped the new project would turn the village into an ideal one.

– From The Daily Star

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