Attitude of farmer towards use of solar energy in agriculture

Abstract

The present study was conducted in Nagpur district of Vidarbha region with sample size of 120 respondents from 5 tahsils. After statistical analysis it was observed that majority of respondents 62.50 per cent had moderately favourable attitude towards use of solar energy in agriculture while 37.50 per cent of the farmers had most favourable attitude and 0.00 per cent had less favourable attitude towards use of solar energy in agriculture. This outcome might be due to significant association of education, source of irrigation, cropping pattern, extension contact, mass media exposure, risk orientation, innovativeness and knowledge with their attitude of respondents towards use of solar energy in agriculture, as majority of variables falls in to the medium score categories. In the constraints analysis attacked of monkeys and caused damage to solar panel, poor linkage with MEDA and updated information of solar energy technology through PM-KUSUM scheme were not received by farmers, solar energy is sunlight dependent and solar panel not worked in gloomy weather condition, high initial cost for installing solar panel in their farm, spare components of solar panel not readily available in the market, weather predictions not supplied on a weekly basis properly village to village, technical & maintenance requirement for operating solar water pump, respondents were not encouraged to employ solar energy in agriculture, solar energy storage is expensive, faced problem regarding solar water pumps not easily available, faced problem of subsidies not made available to them for solar powered machinery, space needed for installing solar panel in their farm, installation of solar panel is difficult were the major constraints faced by the farmers in study area.