NASHIK: 15 acres of ancestral agriculture land and 24 hours of water availability. However, due to irregularities in electricity supply, farming had become difficult for this progressive youth farmer. His sugarcane farm bloomed and revived when he took up the state government’s CM Solar Pump Scheme.
Shubham Upasani, a young farmer from Kotul in Akole taluka of Ahmednagar district, applied for the Chief Minister’s Solar Pump Scheme in the name of his father in October 2020. He was selected under this scheme and in October 2021, an agricultural solar water pump of 7.5 horse power was installed in his field. Before installing solar pump, this budding farmer had to exercise while cultivating sugarcane.
Due to the irregularity in power supply, the sugarcane was being supplied water which was an uphill task. Sometimes due to technical reasons, the power supply used to cut off for eight to ten days causing huge losses. Now, it is convenient and easy to irrigate 12 acres of sugarcane fields through solar pumps. Therefore, it is becoming profitable to cultivate sugarcane, stated by Shubham.
Under the CM Solar Agriculture Pump Scheme, solar pumps are provided to open category farmers on 90 per cent subsidy. The price of this pump in the open market is around Rs 4.5 lakh . Shubham paid 10% for this. Currently, the pump is running smoothly from 8.30 am to 5 pm. At present 1.5 acres of sugarcane is irrigated per day. Shrikant Sonawane, Assistant Engineer, MSEDCL, Vitthal Harak, Balu Ghode, Sanjay Gawari and Sachin Patil helped Shubham to get the solar pump set. Shubham himself is highly educated. After doing B.Tech (Food Technology), he has done MBA (Marketing).
Shubham has set up a cow shed as an allied agricultural business. Currently he has Dangi, Jersey and Gir cows. It provides cow dung along with milk products. It is becoming possible to cultivate organically through this manure. The future focus will be on crop production through Polly House. Also, if agriculture is done in a modern way using micro-irrigation, organic manure and minimum manpower, then agriculture will definitely be profitable, said Shubham.
Various government initiatives are being implemented across the state on the occasion of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. In Nashik division, under the guidance of Divisional Commissioner Radhakrishna Game, various schemes and initiatives of the state government are being implemented effectively.
