Sustainable Financial Solutions for the Adoption of Solar Powered Irrigation Pumps in Nepal's Terai

Solar-powered irrigation in Nepal: implications for fossil fuel use and groundwater extraction

“…In 2018, the federal government of Nepal allocated US $30 million for solar irrigation expansion and tripled it in 2019 (Ministry of Finance 2020). The government also empowered the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) to serve as the 7 Private and non-governmental organizations have also distributed a few hundred SIPs over the last few years (Mukherji et al 2017). 8 A record high of 4600 applications were submitted by farmers to the government in 2020 compared to 300 applications in 2017.…”

Is irrigation fit for purpose? A review of the relationships between scheme size and performance of irrigation systems

“…There can also be economies of scale and/or scope in expanding groundwater irrigation for groundwater service and equipment providers, such as well drillers, pumps (Wang et al, 2007), equipment repair tradespeople and MFIs to supply credit (Abric et al, 2011;Agrawal & Jain, 2018;Villholth, 2013 and references cited therein;Shah et al, 2020;Soumaila, 2021). Irrigation equipment providers may also find it more profitable to devise alternative financing mechanisms to reach clients that are otherwise priced out of the market, such as pay-as-you go financing (Mukherji et al, 2017) and rent-to-own financing (Kunen et al, 2015;Bastakoti et al, 2019). These economies may be even more likely if government and/or donor projects to support groundwater investment also invest in complementary services, such as roads or cold storage facilities, etc.…”

Improving pumpset selection to support intensification of groundwater irrigation in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains

“…Irrigation development initiatives as part of national agricultural and rural development policies (e.g., Agriculture Prospective Plan and National Agricultural Policy) have focused on donor-driven infrastructure investments priorities, such as development of large-scale canal systems (Biggs and Justice, 2015) or expanding networks of shallow and deep tubewells (Government of Nepal, 2005;ADB, 2012). More recently, focus have shifted to introduction of new renewable-based pumping technologies such as solar or microhydro (Mukherji et al, 2017;Bastakoti et al, 2020), reinforced by Nepal's most recent national Rural Energy Policy in 2006 that introduced significant subsidies (50-75+%) on agricultural machinery powered by renewable energy (Gauchan and Shrestha, 2017). In contrast, there has been comparatively little emphasis with agricultural and rural development policies on pumpset selection and helping farmers to make more efficient use of technologies already readily available in local markets.…”