By Tanmoy Bhaduri Women farmers in Kayumer Char, Gaibandha in northern Bangladesh, lead their cattle home against the backdrop of a movable micro-solar irrigation pump. Photo: Tanmoy Bhaduri / IWMI The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has launched the second phase of the Solar Energy for Agricultural Resilience (SoLAR) project. Running from…
By Kriti Sharma, Deepak Varshney, and Darshini Ravindranath The agriculture sector in India, as per the India Energy Outlook, accounts for a staggering 80% of the country’s water demand. Within the total cultivable area, 51% relies on rainfed irrigation while the remaining 49% depends on irrigation systems. Out of the…
By Darshini Ravindranath Angel Konthoujam. Gender equality and social equity are integral to achieving sustainable development in agriculture-food systems, however, achieving said goals has been challenging because of the unique complexities associated with it. Gendered power dynamics are frequently visible in middle- and low-income countries which results in women having…
By Amrita Rauniyar Shisher Shrestha. Climate change is having a global impact on water security and agricultural practices. As a result, there is a need for sustainable agricultural practices (Singh et al., 2024). Boosting agriculture in a changing climate requires climate-resilient technologies that address both adaptation and mitigation measures. Solar…
By Kriti Sharma Deepak Varshney Darshini Ravindranath. The agriculture sector in India, as per the India Energy Outlook, accounts for a staggering 80% of the country’s water demand. Within the total cultivable area, 51% relies on rainfed irrigation while the remaining 49% depends on irrigation systems. Out of the 26…
By Shisher Shrestha Manish Kumar Bangladesh’s farmers depend on irrigation powered by imported diesel. With the rising cost of fossil fuel, the diesel-powered irrigation system is becoming increasingly unaffordable. According to Bangladesh’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the country is committed to reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 5% (un-conditionally) by…
By Sunipa Das Gupta SwitchON Foundation, an SDC-IWMI SoLAR innovation fund grantee, is enabling farmers in East and West Midnapore, Nadia, and North 24 Parganas districts of West Bengal to avail of a state government subsidy for SIPs, by facilitating bank loans for them through the Ratnakar Bank Limited (RBL).…
By Archisman Mitra Diesel-based groundwater irrigation has been crucial for Bangladesh’s Boro rice cultivation and subsequent food security. As of 2019, boro accounted for more than half of Bangladesh’s food grain production. However, Bangladesh imports much of its diesel. As a result, it spends roughly $3.2 billion annually on import…
By Shisher Shrestha Kalinga Renewable Energy Manufacturers Pvt. Limited (KARMA), a start-up from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar, innovates in mobile solar irrigation pumps for small and fragmented landholdings in rural Bihar and Odisha. Due to poor irrigation infrastructure and a lack of reliable electricity grids in…
By Shisher Shrestha Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI), a SoLAR IF Grantee based in Rachi, aims to transform the lives of tribal households in the tribal belt of Jharkhand. In the Sardakhel village, Rachi, the local tribal group Munda resides. The tribe is dependent on agriculture. But susceptible to…
