Agartala, May 11 (IANS). Taking an important step towards doubling the income of farmers and strengthening sustainable agriculture, the Power Department in collaboration with Tripura Renewable Energy Development Agency has successfully installed 8,364 solar powered irrigation pumps.
Tripura’s Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Ratan Lal Nath said that 8,364 solar energy powered irrigation pumps have been installed under the Prime Minister Kisan Urja Suraksha and Utthan Maha Abhiyan Yojana. Apart from this, work is going on on 2,531 solar pumps across the state.
8,364 farmers have already benefited under the PM-KUSUM scheme and 2,531 more farmers are expected to benefit once the ongoing installations are completed.
The Minister on Monday visited the solar powered agricultural irrigation system installed under the PM-KUSUM project at Satdubiya village of Mohanpur in West Tripura district. He also visited the solar powered tea garden village of Mohanpur and interacted with local farmers.
The minister said that villagers and farmers are happy after getting free solar energy and irrigation water. The total cost of each solar pump unit is approximately Rs 3 lakh. Of this amount, the farmer has to pay only Rs 15,000, while the remaining expenses are borne by the government.
The minister said, “So far, a total of 8,364 farmers have benefited from the scheme and 41,820 kani (0.33 to 0.4 acres) of land has been brought under irrigation through the project. The entire cost is being borne by the Tripura government. Tripura has secured the first position in the Northeast under the PM-KUSUM scheme. I personally visited the projects, inspected, met and talked to the farmers. Our goal It’s even bigger and the work is constantly expanding.”
The minister said that the state government had initially targeted to install 10,895 solar irrigation pumps under the scheme, with the aim of bringing 54,475 kanis of agricultural land under irrigation.
According to the minister, installation of 8,364 pumps has already been completed, covering 41,820 kanis of land and directly benefiting 8,364 farmers. Additionally, installation of 2,531 more pumps is underway, which is expected to irrigate 12,655 kanis of additional land across the state and benefit 2,531 additional farmers.
–IANS
OP/ABM