The KUSUM (Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan) scheme was announced in the Union Budget in 2018 with an aim to promote use of solar power among farmers. Under this scheme farmers would be provided with solar water pumps.
Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM)’ provides for:
Installation of grid-connected solar power plants each of capacity up to 2 MW in the rural areas.
Installation of standalone off-grid solar water pumps to fulfill irrigation needs of farmers not connected to grid.
Solarisation of existing grid-connected agriculture pumps to make farmers independent of grid supply and also enable them to sell surplus solar power generated to DISCOM and get extra income; and Solarisation of tube-wells and lift irrigation projects of Government sector.
Central Government’s plan
The government has planned to provide 27.5 lakh solar pumps (17.50 lakh standalone + 10Lakh Grid-connected) under the scheme. It will help farmers install total 10 GW of Solar Power Plants of intermediate capacity of 0.5 to 2 MW each. It also envisages 50,000 Grid-connected tube-wells/lift irrigation and drinking water projects.