Life is “better after solar energy”: Using sunshine to give freedom and profit to Indian salt farmers
In the noon sun, Devabhai Sawadiya slowly stirred the salt pot that already existed in his home. He was quiet around him, except for the grand movements of his salt broom and the soft, jingling sound of washing dishes nearby.
This is a new development. For years there have been loud sputtering diesel engines running continuously to pull out salty salt water and stuff it into the ground, which farmers then spread into square fields to evaporate and produce salt crystals.
Now, it is solar panels igniting in a huge arid desert that powers the pumps.
The power of hours of shining sunshine in the mountains of Kutch in western India's Gujarat has changed dramatically.
“After years of hard work, we finally made money,” the 59-year-old farmer told CBC News.
“forward [we got] Solar panels, there is almost no enough money to eat, not rupee. ”
The nomadic salt farmers, known as Agariyas, migrated from their villages to villages in Gujarat, and each fall, immediately after the monsoon rains, landed on Little Lann in Kutch Desert, camped in a crumbling tarpaulin tent near the salt marsh for an eight-month harvest season.
They did not have the swamps of generations to make India the salt needed by the world's third largest salt producer.
They return to government land every year to help produce 30% of Indian salt found inland, which is mainly meal salt.
Solar panels breed on the salt plains in western India, farmers told CBC's South Asian journalist Salimah Shivji that the technology has completely changed their lives.
Before they receive help buying solar panels and installing them next to the salt pan, farmers will start debt each season and are forced to borrow money from the salt shop so they can buy the 15 barrels of diesel engine needed for the old pump.
In one season, the cost of borrowing can be as high as INR 300,000, or nearly $5,000 in CDN.
“We'll return with a bag full of salt, but nothing – not enough money,” Savadia said.
Diesel issue
He added that the constant smoke and toxins in the diesel made them “sick and cause a lot of problems”. His hands were also often stained black because he had to fiddle with the machine.
Sawadiya's two solar panels now have a main location next to the family tent where his little grandson, Kushti, plays. There is still a diesel pump that can only be used as a backup at night or in cloudy times.
“It shocked us, it comforted us,” said Sawadiya's wife Jassiben Sawadiya.
“Life is better after solar.”
The family was able to build a new house in their village and pay for their son’s wedding because they now save thousands of dollars a year without buying diesel fuel.
There is freedom because “we don’t have to borrow money from anyone else.”
High government subsidies
Of the nearly 5,000 Agarian families working in the Salt Desert, most utilize substantial subsidies from Gujarat and the federal government, covering 80% of a solar panel.
The plan is well suited to India's efforts to invest heavily in renewable energy while slowly trying to make the country reliant on coal.
South Asian countries still depend on coal (the dirtiest fossil fuel), which produces more than 70% of the power.
Officials also quickly argued that India’s right to authorize coal-fired power plants to open, even if it prioritizes clean energy.
Despite this, India's solar industry is growing rapidly, with solar capacity now installed now above 108 GW, according to the government's news bureau. It was less than three GW ten years ago.
“Excellent output”
The country is also focused on building large solar farms, clusters of thousands of panels and columns that generate cleaning capacity.
“With solar energy, farmers’ expenses are close to zero and the output is very good,” said Bharatbhai Somera, who volunteered for years at the local NGO Agariya Heet-rakshak Manch, who advocated for the salt breeding community.
He grew up in an Agariya family in the salt desert and watched his father work constantly for acquisition.
The solar panels in Kutch and the money they save now allow farmers to extend the harvest season, which means the salt they produce is better quality as it has more time to crystallize.
The shift to renewable energy also fixes community bonds.
“With diesel, farmers have to keep paying attention to the machine 24 hours a day,” Somera said. If there is a home feature, agariyas has to skip it.
“Now solar work alone, they can go see their families and go to weddings.”
The impact of subsidies remains
But even though the benefits were obvious to Somera and his colleagues, he said there were many demonstrations and convincing persuasion with government officials before the subsidy was approved.
It lasted for five years, but no longer provided subsidies, even with the huge impact left.
“The whole loop of exploitation and poverty that has been happening for generations, [the agariyas] It can be broken in two to three years. ” said Pankti Jog, project director at Agariya Heet-Rakshak Manch.
She said most households now have at least one solar panel, but as subsidies disappear, insurance aid systems to prevent panels from crashing or exhausting, which will help most farmers.
Isolated life
Life in a generous arid desert is still very difficult in a sense of magnificent isolation.
There are no medical clinics or family doctors and children taking abandoned buses to school, and their electric motors are removed and parked casually in the middle of the sun-like landscape.
One spring afternoon, a dozen kids squeezed into one of the buses and sat on a small table inside the vehicle after the vehicle was converted, and several older kids led a vocabulary check as they waited for the teacher to arrive.
Among many salt farmers, there is a desperate desire for more opportunities, and solar energy provides some answers.
Jerabhai Dhamecha, 34, has three daughters and a son, both in elementary and middle schools.
When he threw the large salt pool to one side, he listed what the solar panels brought – a new brick house in their village, a new tractor, a motorcycle.
“My grandfather has nothing”
Until solar energy changes everything, “we can’t even buy bikes,” said Dhamecha, 34.
“My grandfather had nothing. They used to carry water and carry it with them. [to the fields] on foot. ”
Now, he is making about 60% profit, and the expense of no diesel is driving him down.
A fellow Agariya interjected with a similar idea as he eagerly showed how his solar water pump worked.
Kalubhai Surela, 58, compared the group members to having an extra son or having father Long Dead return to help families get a brand new salary.
“Our grandfathers were nothing sad in this desert. Their lives were a struggle,” Sureira said.
“But now, after solar energy, there is pure joy here.”
