Agriculture in Bhandut is now powered entirely by solar pumps!

Bhandut is a small village in the Olpad block of Surat district, Gujarat. The village’s 688 bigha of agricultural land is now totally irrigated using fifteen 5-HP pumps facilitated by the Adani Foundation, saving money, time, and reducing CO2 emissions. It is a public-private partnership model in which the Gram Panchayat and the Adani Foundation, with the guidance of the government’s irrigation department, came together to successfully execute the transfer from diesel to solar-powered pumps in two years. The Adani Foundation is always creating opportunities for the farming community to benefit from the latest knowledge and technology. Through this initiative, the farmers are not only saving precious wealth by not buying diesel but also saving in the form of labour costs and time. A total of 401 farmers are reaping the benefits of the initiative. Looking at the average annual savings on diesel, the farmers will collectively save approximately Rs. 9.13 lakhs monthly and Rs. 1.10 crore annually. One of the major indirect benefits of the initiative has been the utility of those few farmlands as well, which were not productive due to a lack of access to irrigation.