In the village of Saroba, over 75km from the city on Chakri Road, the National Agriculture Research Centre (NARC) has selected farms to help farmers use solar energy.

The small and medium-sized farms are fed water through a solar energy pump system, and solar energy also powers the farmers’ fodder cutting machines, wheat flour milling machines and their home appliances. They also use solar power to grow off-season crops in tunnel farming.

Instead of using drains from dug wells or nearby reservoirs to water their farms, farmers have been trained to lay water lines and use micro-sprinklers and dripping, known as High Efficiency Irrigation Systems (HIES).

HIES include drips and bubbler irrigation, which ensure efficiency of water use and conserve more than half of the water lost in traditional farming methods.

Dug wells and water tanks are located at higher elevations than the cultivated parts of farms, and where farmers would have relied on electric water pumps to feed water to their farms, they now use switch-on motors powered by solar energy.

The NARC has also introduced multiple cropping and tunnel farming, transforming the farms into multi-crop, agri-economic model farms.

Inspired by these model farms, most of the area’s farmers have turned to solar energy for farming purposes.

The farmers and the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council – under which the NARC operates – worked together to install solar power systems in the farms; the major investment comes from the farmers, and can be recovered within three or four years.

Mohammad Ayub, a small farmer, said he replaced his diesel pump with solar energy and has seen good results.

“In the past, it took more time to water the farm through water extracted from the dug well by donkeys and the diesel pump, and required labourers to bring water to the end corner of the farm,” he explained. He said that since installing a solar powered system he had begun using Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies.

PARC Energy and Water Research Institute’s principal scientific officer and director climate, Dr Mohammad Munir, said: “Climate change is a global issue and its effects have no boundaries. Modern farming methods need to be introduced to avoid the worst effects of climate change.”

Dr Munir said that the institute, under the Himalayan Adaptation Water and Resilience Research project, has developed an economically feasible and socially acceptable innovative solution for the Potohar region’s vulnerable farming communities.

“We introduced a portable solar pumping system and tunnel farming to prevent the worst effects of climate change and utilise sunlight for farming,” he said.

The portable solar pumping system is a tractor-mounted mobile pump unit, fixed with solar panels that have a capacity of four kilowatts, engineer Khalid Jamil explained. It can operate on various terrain and various water sources, such as surface or groundwater.

Mr Jamil said the mobility and multifunctional pumping capabilities make the system a viable solution for farmers with small and segregated land holdings, and is useful for farmers with multiple water sources.

“Artificial water application is becoming excessively difficult, incurring high operational and capital costs. Farmers are reluctant to pursue agriculture as economical livelihood option. This can have serious consequences for our national food security,” he said.

“The solar pumps entail low operational costs once installed, as compared to conventional fuel-driven pumps or animal driven Persian wheels,” said engineer Ali Kamran, a watershed management specialist.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2018