Under the sharp winter sun in the remote village of Chimkatola, India, Pushpa Devi stands beside a humming solar-powered rice mill as she explains to visiting researchers and policymakers how women in her village transformed their access to irrigation and local rice processing.
The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and partners introduced solar-powered irrigation pumps and rice mills to farmers in the villages of Chimkatola and Kevlari in Madhya Pradesh, India, in 2024. A little over a year later, these villagers are proving that clean energy can be a pathway to economic empowerment and climate resilience.
This South-South learning exchange was facilitated in partnership with the local nonprofit organization Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN) under the IWMI Solar Energy for Agricultural Resilience (SoLAR) project. Researchers and policymakers from Kenya, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and India interacted with Pushpa Devi and other women farmers, learning how solar-powered rice mill machines and solar irrigation pumps reshaped their daily lives.
“Kenya’s irrigation potential is 3.3 million acres, yet only about 710,000 acres are currently under irrigation. Seeing women in rural India operate solar pumps and collectively manage irrigation revenues is a powerful example for us,” said the Irrigation Secretary of the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation in Kenya, Vincent Kabuti. “As Kenya expands solar solutions for smallholder irrigation, this model demonstrates that when communities, especially women, take leadership, irrigation systems become more accountable, efficient and sustainable.”
The South–South learning exchange gave the delegation a close look at how flexible financing is accelerating solar irrigation, how surplus power is being channeled into rice milling, and how combining solar generation with farming on the same land can more than double farmers’ incomes.
