Agriculture, the ancient economic activity prevalent in Bharat, had unfortunately remained regressive in adopting innovative methods of farming and hence, every year the farmer would pray for favourable weather conditions and sufficient monsoon.
A failed rainy season would result in a huge and an endless journey of debt and repayment for farmers. Ultimately, they turned into pawns in political chess.
This drudgery continued perpetually...
But the scenario changed with beginning of NDA Government in 2014. Hon. The Prime Minister’s idea of governance is to initiate a variety of opportunities but discouraging Free-bees.
PM KUSUM Yojna was implemented in July 2019, to increase the income of farmers and provide sources for irrigation and de-dieselisation the agricultural sector. The PM-Kusum scheme launched by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for setting up Solar pumps and other new power plants across the country.
Under PM KUSUM Yojana, farmers, group of farmers, Panchayat, CO-operative societies are eligible to apply for planting a solar pump. The total cost of involved in this scheme is divided in three categories in which the Govt. would help the farmers.
The Government would provide a subsidy of 60% to farmers and 30% of the cost would be given by the government in form of loans. The farmer would only have to shell out rest of 10% of the total cost of the project.
The electricity generated from the solar panel could be sold by the farmers.
The three components of PM-KUSUM Yojna :
Component A- The workers would set up 10,000 MW Of decentralised energy power plants which are grid connected on barren land. The grids would be set up by farmers, CO-operatives, groups of farmers, panchayats, Water users associations (WUA) and Farmer Producer Organization (FPO).
The Power projects would be set up within the radius of 5 kms of the sub-station.
Component B- Under this Scheme, farmers would be supported to install stand-alone Solar agro pumps worth Rs. 17.50 Lakhs. The capacity of the pumps would be upto 7.5 HP for replacement of existing diesel agriculture pumps. The capacity can be higher than 7.5 HP but financial support only would be provided uptil 7.5 HP capacity.
Component C- This Scheme is for Solarisation of 10 Lakh Grid Connected Agriculture Pumps and individual farmers would be supported to solarise pumps, those having grid connected pumps.
Extra solar power would be sold to distribution companies of Bharat (DISCOMs) at Per-fixed tariff.
Farmers irrigation needs shall be met by using generated solar power.
PM-Kusum Scheme is 1.40 Lakh Crore Scheme for promoting decentralised Solar power production of upto 28,250 MW.
Out of 1.40 Lakh Crore, 48,000 Cr would be borne by the central government and 48,000 Cr. by respective state.45,000 Cr. would be granted through bank loans.
Our nation is fortunately blessed with Mountain ranges as well as Oceans surrounding our land. Bharat, is surely a fertile landmass. Rivers and tributaries have enriched our soil but there are definitely certain barren lands, which are less fertile. Utilising such pieces of land would become an additional source of income for farmers.
The Narendra Modi Government‘s visionary initiatives has promoted 623 farmers of Rajashri utilise barren land and producing 722 Megawatt of power.
The farmers can avail production of power for 25 years on their barren and under-utilised piece of land which they can sell to Power companies at 3.14/- per unit along with getting power supply from their own source for their agricultural work.
The novel features enhancing the benefits of PM Kusum Yojna ensures provision of risk-free income for farmers as it provides uninterrupted power supply to farmers. It reduces the farmer's burden of farm power subsidy.
It also has the ability to check groundwater over exploitation.
The paramount impact of this initiative on ecological balance would be reduction of carbon footprint in agriculture.
The application for this Yojana can be done Online on the official Website of PradhanMantri Kusum Yojana.
A farmer, who is a Bharatiya citizen is entitled to be eligible for availing benefits of this scheme. The beneficiary has to have Aadhar Card along with Aadhar linked mobile number, bank account and the documents of his land ownership, which would ensure the size of the pump based on the size of his land.
It is Hon. Prime Minister’s vision to convert the entire Pumping network into Solar led pumps by end of 2022. This would save a huge quantity of diesel.
This is the Modiji-led Government's long sighted visionary step to step forward on the path of becoming Atmanirbhar Bharat.