New Delhi, October 21: The government will soon launch what Union New and Renewable Energy Minister Pralhad Joshi called the world’s most ambitious agrivoltaics programme under the next phase of the PM-KUSUM scheme. Agrivoltaics means growing crops on land that also carries solar panels.
Joshi made the announcement on Wednesday at the opening of the three-day 7th AgriVoltaics World Conference at Bharat Mandapam, which he inaugurated jointly with Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Land and power figures
Citing a study by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Joshi said 47.5 million hectares of India’s 116 million hectares of farmland, about 30 per cent, is technically suitable for agrivoltaics. Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh account for half of it. He said installations on just 10 per cent of this land could meet India’s entire projected electricity demand up to 2050, and that the technology had been found to raise crop yields by 10 to 20 per cent.
Under PM-KUSUM, 30 lakh farm pumps have so far been connected to solar power, he said. According to studies he cited, the sector could create about 3.32 lakh full-time local jobs.
Joshi said India’s power generation capacity had risen from about 249 GW before 2014 to more than 560 GW, with installed non-fossil capacity above 308 GW. The cost of non-fossil power had fallen from ₹11 a unit in 2012-13 to ₹2.60, he said.
Chouhan’s conditions for small farmers
Chouhan said agrivoltaics policy must be designed around the 85 per cent of Indian farmers who are small and marginal, with an average holding of 0.96 hectares. These farmers cannot give up cultivation to install solar plants, he said, so the height of the panels, the spacing between supports and room for ploughing must let them farm normally and change crops from year to year.
He called for proper drainage of rainwater running off the panels, reliable purchase of the power generated, grid connections and timely payments to farmers. He suggested involving Farmer Producer Organisations and training local young people and women to operate and repair the equipment. Safeguards should also ensure that farmers bear no financial or physical burden if a company abandons a project or panels have to be removed when a contract ends, he said.
Chouhan said the agriculture and renewable energy ministries would work together on the programme. He also said agricultural exports had reached a record US$52.55 billion and that rabi sowing for 2026-27 had begun with a focus on pulses and oilseeds.
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