Anisul Islam Noor :
Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB) has taken an initiative to replace power and diesel irrigation pumps with solar to ensure uninterrupted power for pumps and reducing dependency on oil import.
The farmers in Bangladesh usually rely on diesel and electricity run pumps for irrigation during Boro and Aman cultivation. In the absence of uninterrupted power, they suffer from required water during irrigation quite often. Due to the extra pressure on importing fuel for diesel run pumps, a good amount of foreign currency is also spent.
Under this initiative, after establishing five types of pumps of 2.2 kilowatt to 11 kilowatt capacity, those will be handed over to farmers’ ownership after paying a certain amount of money in installments.
Of 80 samity of BREB, initially 10 Samity have started the program, but in different phases, it will be implemented in all samities. The cost of electricity will be Tk 5.46 per unit, said Major General Moin Uddin, Chairman of BERB while talking to The New Nation.
According to the ministry of planning, the initiative has taken at a cost of 407.20 crore. The solar pumps will create alternative sources of income for farmers, in addition to reducing the risks of overall environmental pollution and climate change.
BREB implementation period is scheduled April 2018 to December 2020. Of the total cost of the project, Tk 37.94 crore will be provided by the government treasury, the remaining 367.63 crore will taken as loan from Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the rest of Tk 1.63 will be provided from BERB’s fund.
BREB Chairman Major General Moin Uddin said that in certain irrigation seasons there is excessive pressure for electricity on national grid, which will be reduced following implementation of the project.
He said the solar irrigation pump would be established by more than half subsidy as it is pollution free and very environment friendly.
It will be given ownership of farmers through long-term installments, he said. They can earn around Tk 66000 through irrigation by a pumps in a year, BREB Chairman said.
Besides, they can also use the pumps solar system for power producing in the off-season as alternative purposes, the chairman said.
Solar powered irrigation has been gaining popularity among the farmers because of uninterrupted water supply and cost advantage over diesel-based pumps, said the project official.
Atiar Rahman, a farmer of Badarganj upazila of Rangpur told the reporter over phone that a year ago during the Boro season, he used to run diesel-run water pumps for irrigation. It used to cost around Tk14000 to 20,000 for irrigation per acre land. However, he has irrigated Boro crop in same area of land by solar power with cost of Tk 7000 only.
Farmer Wazed Mia of the same upazila cultivated Boro crop irrigating through solar- power. He said that the cost of irrigation through the solar-power has been reduced considerably. Now, uninterrupted irrigation is available throughout the year. In Rabi season, only Tk 7,000 per acre is spent, he said.
To reduce cost and disruption of electricity BREB is implanting the project to bring diesel and electricity-powered irrigation pumps under solar- power.
As part of this, two thousand irrigation pumps will be set up in five categories under 10 samity of BREB. The Samities are Thakurgaon, Dinajpur-1, Rangpur-2, Bogra-1, Naogaon-2, Gopalganj, Faridpur, Madaripur, Comilla-2 and Feni Palli Bidyut Samity.
Solar power irrigation pump in rural areas will be established on turn-key basis. It includes 2.2 kilowatt capacity 550 pumps, 4 kilowatt 530 pumps, 5.5 kilowatt 500 pumps, 7.5 kilowatt 320 pumps and 11 kilowatt capacity 100 pumps.
All of the pumps’ lifetime will be 20 years. Farmers will get full ownership of the pump by paying one-time down payment 15 percent and remaining 85 percent payment in installments within 10 years.
According to BERB, the installation cost of a solar pump of 2.2 kilowatt capacity for 20 years’ life will be Tk 9.63 lakh. The government’s grants will cover more than half of total cost. That means the farmers will have to pay Tk 4.76. Farmers can take ownership of paying15 percent or 71 thousand taka one time. The remaining 4 lakh 5 thousand taka can be paid in 10 year installments.
After payment of installment, full ownership of irrigation pump will be handed over to the farmers. The net income of a farmer with 2.2 kilowatt capacity solar power water pump will be Tk 3000 per bigha land. Such a pump can irrigate 22 bigha land in a year and a farmer can earn Tk 60000 annually.
BREB Chief Engineer (Planning and Development) SM Zafar Sadek told The New Nation that the famer would get three-years warranty from solar power pumps suppliers.
As a result, the farmers will get free services for three years. Later, in order to get the services of the farmers, in the next three years, the trained technicians will be developed, and the farmers will get lifetime technical assistance, he said.
Besides, within 10 years the solar power pump will be replaced twice and the inverters will be changed for a single time. Throughout the replacing process of diesel water pumps into renewable energy will contribute to reducing the risk of climate change, Zafar Sadek claimed.
There are 2.25 lakh electricity customers of BREB under it 80 Palli Bidyut Samity of which 3,25,000 customers are for irrigation water pumps. The highest power consumption demand of BREB is 6200mw till this April.
