Solar Water Pump Made Life of Livestock Farmer Easier

Sarita Regmi, a female farmer residing in Shivadwar, Madi-11 of Chitwan District, daily life started early, in the morning at 3 p.m. To feed water to livestock and irrigate vegetable  farm she needed to use her hand pump continuously for 3-4 hours daily. She never dreamed that this drudgery and tiresome activity would be drastically reduced simply by installing and owning a solar energy powered water pump.

“Our life took a new turn after taking part in orientation and interaction program on solar water pumping organized by Small Farmer Cooperative Association with support of Winrock International at Baghauda, Madi in July last year”, says Rudra Prasad Regmi, husband of Sarati Regmi. We were interested to have this technology, however the system cost was high.  At the program we learned about affordable rent – to -own business modality advocated by SunFarmer Nepal and we immediately decided to shift to  solar pump remembering our  laborious efforts every morning of everyday”, explains Mr. Regmi.

Consequently, Ms. Regmi has installed a 300 Wp solar water pumping system that powers a 0.5 Hp AC pumps to pump around 5,000 liters of water daily under affordable financial scheme provided by SunFarmer. The total system cost was NRs. 92,000 and included 2 years after sale service. Incentive of NRs. 24,000 was provided by Winrock to Ms. Regmi as an appreciation for her being the first user and adopter of this technology in her community and her confidence and assurance to attract other farmers to accept this technology. After covering equity of NRs. 20,000 as upfront payment, the NRs. 48,000 of the system and service cost was arranged under lease-to-own business modality by SunFramer with estimated tenure term of 2 years. Under this scheme Ms. Regmi has to pay monthly an installment of NRs. 2,000 only.

“Solar water pump saved our time which we utilize for other productive activities and has made our life easier – no more physical labor and worries”, says Ms. Regmi. “With hand pump, there were limitations in number of livestock we could manage; since for example only one cow requires 50 to 60 liters of water a day. The provision of water to all animals was a hectic and wearisome labor. However, now I am planning to add more cows and pigs. This will help us to increase our income by selling more milk and meat and we can easily pay our monthly installments”, explains Ms. Regmi.

More than 80% of Nepalese people’s livelihood is depended on livestock and small farming and many farmers, like Ms. Regmi are facing same difficulties in having easy access to water.

Winrock International is supporting SunFarmer Nepal and other supplier companies for developing and marketing their business models for promoting solar water pumping systems for irrigation and livestock in different parts of Nepal. This affordable and proven rent-to-own business model can be beneficial to smallholding farmers. Six other small farmers has already installed solar water pumping in  lease-to-own model. Installing solar pumps will ensure sustainable and easy access to water for their livestock and farms needs and therefore, contribute to increase in productivity and self-reliance of the farmers.