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One Day Training Programme for Farmers on “Energy & Water Conservation” in Agriculture Pumping Organized By MAHARASHTRA ENERGY DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (MEDA) & KRISHI VIGYAN KENDRA, BARAMATI Venue: - Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Malegaon, Khurd, Baramati, Pune Date: - 9th April, 2015 Sponsored by BUREAU OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY (BEE) Government of India, Ministry of Power New Delhi Maharashtra Energy Development Agency Page 1 CONTENTS Sr. No. Particulars Page No. 1. BACKGROUND 3 2. INTRODUTION 4 3. OBJECTIVE OF THIS WORKSHOP 7 4. AGENDA OF THIS WORKSHOP 8 5. DETAILS OF PARTICIPANTS 10 6. DETAILS OF GUESTS 11 7. DETAILS OF SPEAKERS 13 8. TOPICS COVERED IN WORKSHOP 13 9. PHOTOGRAPHS OF WORKSHOP 20 10. SUMMARY OF INPUTS FROM PARTICIPANTS 23 LIST OF ANNEXURES ANNEXURE 1: REGISTRATION LIST OF PARTICIPANTS....................................25 Maharashtra Energy Development Agency Page 2 1. BACKGROUND There are 20 million ‘irrigation structures’ (such as wells, tube wells, canals, and tanks) in India. The rapid deployment of tube well technology has contributed to improving the lot of farmers. However, it is increasingly clear that underground aquifers are being depleted and the free power policies that helped enable the lifting of ground water have imposed a ruinous financial burden on the country’s erstwhile SEBs. Unhappily, there is neither enough water nor enough electricity to allow the continuation of the practices of the past three decades for another three. Reversing the policies of the past might not be enough to restore equilibrium and create conditions that would allow sustainable growth. Worse, the consequences of an abrupt reversal could be devastating for the millions of small, poor farmers who comprise most of rural India. Today, India’s agricultural sector consumes 30–40 percent of total electricity, up from 10 per cent during the 1970s. Agricultural Demand Side Management In the power sector, Agricultural Demand-side Management (AgDSM) consists of those activities, methodologies, and technologies that influence consumer behaviour and modify their consumption patterns. The objective may be to reduce peak demand, shift the time during which electricity is consumed to off-peak hours or to reduce the total quantum of consumption. The AgDSM proposition is simple. Replace inefficient irrigation pumps with high efficiency pumps to reduce the amount of electricity needed to pump irrigation water. By doing so, electricity usage can be reduced dramatically. If the savings from the reduction in electricity usage can be sustained and the total cost of the electricity saved exceeds the total installed cost of the pump over its useful life, there will be a net economic gain. Over the course of the last several years, a number of parties have invested significant efforts to design and implement several AgDSM pilot projects with the aim of identifying a solution to the problem. Much has been learned from those efforts as well as from other relevant analyses and studies. The goal is to provide a return equal to the cost of capital. In the absence of economically efficient tariffs to continuously send correct pricing signals to customers, we must resort to a ‘second best’ solution. The AgDSM pump set efficiency concept appears to be relatively simple—perhaps deceptively simple—but the actual implementation of this ‘second best’ administrative approach will involve a significant number of stakeholders including: State governments Farmers or farmer groups Electricity distribution companies Electric Regulatory Commissions Implementation contractors Ministry of Power/Bureau of Energy Efficiency Ministry of Water Resources Panchayats Ministry of Panchayati Raj One or more financial institutions Pump manufacturers Maharashtra Energy Development Agency Page 3 2. INTRODUCTION There is a growing demand for electrical energy for irrigation requirements in India. Electrical Utilities of many states have been facing acute power shortage which led to unrest in the farmers in many states. It is observed in the last few decades, the underground water levels have been falling down drastically and cultivated area has been demand for electrical energy for irrigation. The generation is not growing proportionately to the growing demand. On the other side, the available energy is also not properly unutilized for Agricultural purposes. The farmers have to be educated in the area of energy conservation and proper utilization of available resources in the country. Lack of perennial rivers made ground water tapping a prerequisite in irrigation in south India. This has led to an increase in consumption of electricity by agriculture sector. 73% of Indian population depends directly or indirectly on agriculture. About 50% of Indian populations are farmers. About 20% of the farmers have electric pumps. Hence, only 10% of population directly benefit from agricultural electricity use. In most of the states, agricultural consumption is un-metered. Consumers pay a flat rate tariff which is also highly subsidized; however, a large part of the subsidy is cornered by richer, larger farmer. In Maharashtra state, 80% of the farmers depend on rain fed agriculture. Out of the remaining 20% farmers, those with large land-holdings (2% of the farmers) capture 20% of the subsidy. In India more than 50% of fresh water and around 30% of electricity are consumed for agricultural use, causing an extreme shortage. The problem of water is more serious as the water level is continuously decreasing. Green revolution has made India able to feed its growing population but has also increased the demand of water and electricity. Most of the farms in the country are rain fed, hence the monsoon plays important role in agricultural while ground water becomes reliable source. Due to the poor economic condition of farmers and its political advantages, government is giving power to the farmers at subsidized rates. There are various fresh water sources like rivers, dams, lake or ponds and ground water. From all the above ground water is available everywhere and supplies most of the agricultural water requirement. Farmers being illiterate and because of subsidized power rates, use of oversized pumps to extract water from growing depths is common. The high friction foot valve and inefficient piping system are generally preferred as they are economical. The energy consumption for irrigation in India can be lowered to half if the conventional pump sets are replaced with matching energy efficient BEE 5 or 4 stars rated pump sets. Demand side management is recognized as one of the important area in the agriculture sector in view of the increasing energy consumption pattern and need to be considered as key strategies capable of offering unique opportunities to implement energy efficiency measures. Energy efficiency through agriculture demand side management promises immense opportunities and benefits. Agriculture demand side management programme of Bureau of Energy Efficiency could offer a unique way to influence and change the equipment buying habits of end use consumers so that they prefer to adopt efficient technologies. The benefits are realized through reduction in overall power consumption, improving efficiencies of ground water extraction, reducing subsidy burden on state utilities and also investment in power plants through avoided capacity. Agriculture Demand Side Management (AgDSM) is one of the key thrust areas for promoting energy efficiency in agriculture pumping system. As we aware that energy use in agriculture is used primarily for Irrigation / Pumping out water and for other Maharashtra Energy Development Agency Page 4 operations. There is a potential of about 25% to 35% improvement in the efficiency of these pump sets by affecting minor/major rectification and shifting to ISI marked pumps. In Agriculture Demand side management (AgDSM) project, existing inefficient irrigation pump sets are replaced with Energy Efficient pump sets (EEPS) free of cost to the farmers. AgDSM projects are implemented on ESCO mode where the investment is done by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) and the investment is recovered by the energy saving. In this regard, Bureau of Energy Efficiency has conveyed to Maharashtra Energy Development Agency (MEDA) to conduct state level training programme for farmers on “Energy and Water Conservation” in agriculture pumping at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Baramati. BEE wants to organize this training programme in order to promote the energy conservation activities in the Agriculture sector. All the farmers of the State who are taking new tube well connection or opting higher capacity pump sets will be encouraged to install at least 4 star rated(BEE Star rating) pump sets. It also gives the economic energy saving estimates of agricultural pumping systems and use of non conventional energy in agriculture. MEDA has organized training programme for farmers on “Energy and Water Conservation” in agriculture pumping in co-ordination with Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Baramati. By considering the wide platform for farmers at KVK, Baramati, BEE has selected this Krishi Vigyan Kendra for training the farmers across the State of Maharashtra. FEW WORDS ABOUT KRISHI VIGYAN KENDRA, BARAMATI The Krishi Vigyan Kendra is a district level Farm Science Center established by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi at Agricultural Development Trust Baramati District Pune for speedy transfer of technology to the farmers' fields. The operational area of this Krishi Vigyan Kendra

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