Environmental

Environmental

  • IDEI has made substantial positive contribution to environment by promoting environment friendly technologies amongst the smallholder farmers. Smallholder farms numbering more than 93 million1 are the largest population in the agricultural sector of India. Empowering them to use environment friendly irrigation technologies has made a large impact especially on the following four parameters.

     

    Diesel Savings

    The adoption of Treadle Pump replaces the use of diesel pumps by the smallholder farmers. A total of 681.7 million litres of diesel has been saved in agriculture in India. This much diesel could meet the diesel requirements of Delhi for 307 days (in the year 2010-11).

    When monetised this will be US$ 545 Million!

  • Carbon Emission Reduction

    Study2 conducted by The Energy Resource Institute concluded that each treadle pump offsets half a ton of CO2 every year. With the adoption of over 900, 000 treadle pump and savings of 681.7 million litres of diesel over 2. 62 million tCO2 eq has been offset.

    When monetised this carbon offset will be US$ 18.3 Million.

  • Water Use Productivity

    Water is becoming one of the most precious resources. This preciousness is strongly felt and understood by the farmers living in the water scarce regions of the country especially those living in the west and south of India. The concept of drip of ‘more crop per drop’ allows for increase in area under irrigation without adding more stress on this natural resource. Low-cost drip also raises the productivity of harvested rainwater in these areas, thereby making the watershed projects more economical and successful.

    Over the years with use of drip irrigation systems over 6.6 Billion Cu Meters of water has been saved or equivalent of water requirements of Delhi for a period of 12.6 years. When monetised it translates to US$ 2.3 Million respectively!

  • Electricity Savings

    Decrease in input cost and energy use per unit area irrigated is the core issue of the water-energy nexus. It is estimated that 85% (India: Biomass Energy for Rural india;Global Environment Facility, UNDP, Dec1999) of the energy requirement of a village is directed towards irrigation, with the balance 15% of cooking and lighting purposes. Low-cost drip irrigation will go a long way in reducing energy requirements in villages and also fulfill irrigation needs as it more efficient as compared to conventional flood irrigation. Water-soluble fertilizers can be applied through the drip system resulting in targeted fertilizer application, lower fertilizer and energy costs in delivering them to the plants and thus reduced harmful impact on the environment. Treadle pumps are manually operated and do not need any electrical or fossil fuel energy for operations, thus, lowering energy cost per unit area irrigated.

    Over the years with use of drip irrigation systems over 880 Million kWh of electricity has been saved or equivalent to 2.8 times the annual energy draw for the state of Sikkim (in India). When monetized it translates to US$ 13.3 Million respectively!

    1. https://www.ifad.org/documents/10180/a194177c-54b7-43d0-a82e-9bad64b76e82
    2. Study