BENGALURU, India (AP) — For six years, Pravinbhai Parmar’s farm in Gujarat state in western India has been lined with rice, wheat and solar panels.
The 36-year-old is among a handful of farmers in his native Dhundi village who have been using solar power to irrigate crops.
“I was spending nearly 50,000 rupees ($615) every year to water my crops,” said Parmar. “With solar I spend nothing.”
Parmar also sells the excess electricity to his state’s grid, earning an average of 4,000 rupees ($50) a month.
“It’s a win-win in every way,” he said.
Thousands of farmers have been encouraged to take up solar power for irrigation in the agriculture-rich state as India aims to reach ‘net zero’ by 2070. But livelihoods powered by clean energy are major outliers in the country that’s the third-largest emitter of planet-warming gases in the world, and last…