In the US the average electricity bill is 5 pc of total income. Compared to that, the average domestic consumer in the middle class here in India pays much less, while the poor and farmers pay more! For a farmer who pays Rs 8500 per annum per 5 HP pump, his income going by the US standards should be over a lakh, while we know it is a pittance, hardly crossing four digits!
Should the farmers be charged at average cost of supply? How will it affect agricultural productivity? However subsidizing will mean industrial and domestic consumers bear the burden. What is the solution?
One, encourage farmers to become energy independent by using local resources. Biomass could generate either energy for cooking needs or even produce electricity. The latter will mean a shift from cash crops whose stalks and remains alone will not be enough to generate enough biomass. Around 6500 MT of biomass is required for 1 MW of power. Perhaps they need to be encouraged to grow yield rich crop that can serve as fodder for cattle and biomass. This will have to be done jointly with groups of farmers as individual growers will not be able to sustain the demand.
A program on this concept has been initiated in Rahuri in Maharashtra. The concept revolves around power from biomass. Following the identification of AG feeder serving 400-600 pumps, some 40-60 DPs are provided to supply power to the pumps. Farmers get around 25k per acre plus energy at low cost, jobs are generated, manure produced, so on.
The APDRP provides for dedicated agricultural feeders to facilitate load shedding for AG pumps while government offers subsidy of 10 and 30 pc for biomass gasification and biogas respectively. It is conceived that around 5000 11 Kv feeders can supply power to 31 lakh pump sets at low cost using biomass! Shouldn’t this be the way ahead?
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