Highlights:

  • Maharashtra to lease farmer lands to set up solar feeders
  • The state government will provide a rent of ₹1.25 lakh/per year along with a subsidized power supply to the farmers

Maharashtra cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, has announced that the government will provide ₹1.25 lakh per hectare rent annually to farmers who lease their land to the government for 30 years to set up solar feeders. This rent amount will increase by 3% every year.

Further, the government plans to generate 7 GW of electricity, and would require 28,000 hectares of land space. An official from Maharashtra State Electricity Board Holding Company (MSEB) also revealed that the scheme would start from December 2025.

Solar feeders in agriculture refer to 1-10 MW community-scale solar projects that power diesel pumps and provide reliable 8-10 hours of clean electricity supply to farmers.

The initiative aims to ensure an uninterrupted power supply to farmers during the daytime and reduce the cost of energy generation through solar-based agriculture. While the current electricity tariff in the state is ₹7/unit, solar energy will bring down this number to ₹3.30/unit.

Moreover, the supply of subsidized power to farmers at ₹1.5/unit will continue throughout the scheme. The state government, however, will have to bear a financial burden of ₹10,000 crores, which it plans to partly recover through high power supply tariffs from industries and domestic users.

Additionally, the state government will acquire privately owned land within a 5 km radius of agriculture feeders for solar power purposes as needed. In the case of government-owned lands, land space of up to 10 km around agriculture feeders will be claimed.

The land title will always remain will the farmer and the once lease agreement expires, the land will be returned to the owner.

“Maharashtra is the first state which has decided to shift to solar-powered agriculture. And it has introduced the land lease model which will help farmers to earn sustained income and also retain its land title,” said Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister

He also remarked that the state government is committed to providing 24×7 power to farmers. Currently, coal dominates the energy supply in the agricultural sector and Maharashtra is striving to change that.

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Resource: ET Energy

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