Introduction

As far as land irrigation in Terai region is concerned, it has its specialty of abundance of water in rainy season but acute water shortage in the months from Magh to Jestha. But this time of year is characterized by strong wind when most farmers of the region concentrate their effort into cultivation of vegetables.

Vegetable farming is an endeavor which is gaining momentum in recent years with good profitability and high assurance of return. But as there is practically no surface water, irrigation is always a challenge associated with high investments for pumping up ground water, usually beyond the affordability of marginal range of farmers. It is evident that by some means irrigation can be devised to meet this requirement in an economical way, where vegetable cultivation could be developed as a cash crop with far more promising future in the region.

Introduction of Local Wind Pump can be a highly supportive step, since timely irrigation is undoubtedly one of the major factors in influencing quality and quantity of products. Farm irrigation has no technical constraints with stringent requirements of continuous and/or invariable supply of water, provided a given amount of water supply is assured for a given span of time. This is precisely the fact which gives us a compromise between our requirement and fluctuating nature of wind energy with virtually no ill effect. On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that it is the highly-fluctuating nature of wind velocity that makes wind power technically and economically less popular when it comes to generation of electricity.
 

The wind pump is designed focusing irrigation of small scale vegetable farming land. Proposed project is targeted to poor farmers with limited amount of land (up to 5/6 ropanis). Besides monsoon crops, if these farmers can cultivate two more crops annually including vegetables then it will not only strengthen their financial condition, but they can also come up as contributors to national economy as a whole. This group of farmers is hardly able to produce beyond their own consumption at present.

Proposed project is expected to help such farmers in irrigating vegetable farms to generate extra income thereby supporting their family needs. The local manufacturers will also get benefit by this project as the system can be manufactured with locally available materials utilizing how-how of local manpower.

Due to deceptively simple design and extremely low price of the unit, poor farmers will be able to afford this technology; assuring high probability of success in the local context.

Southern plain region of Nepal, Terai is the grain-basket of the country but the farmers have to rely mainly on the rainfall irrigation. Due to which, neither they are able to use all the fertile land nor able to grow even seasonal crops without adequate water. This results in food scarcity in dry seasons, low family income of farmers and elevates poverty in that locality.

As for alternative sources of the irrigation, ground wells and tube wells are available in some places but, lifting water manually for irrigation is physically impracticable. The diesel water pump though being used by the well-to-do families is unaffordable for the rural poor from initial investment point of view and its recurring fuel & maintenance costs are exorbitant.

The aim of this project is to facilitate alternate technology such as wind power driven water pump to the rural poor so as to enhance their livelihood.

Short-term Objectives

• Fabricate more suitable Local Wind Pump for Nepali context and scenario.
• Transfer the technology to local entrepreneurs, farmers and manufacturers
• Increase productivity in crops and vegetable cultivation and make them more competitive in the market
• Help to develop vegetable farming as cash crops
• Enhance financial condition of marginalized farmers

Long-term Objectives

• Revive confidence of Government and people in harnessing wind energy in Nepal
• Help to save environment by reducing emission (from diesel pumping sets)
• Contribute to minimize national dependency on expensive imported fuel
• Attract local stakeholders in its application

The project is more focused on improving the livelihood of the poor farmers of Terai. People in those areas are poor and farming is their only way.

Revolving fund will be used to provide interest free credit facility to purchase

• Quality raw materials for the production of Local Wind Pump by the local entrepreneurs and
• Local Wind Pump for rural households or individuals.

The money from the sold units will again be kept in the revolving fund and the program is extended to new sites, thereby spreading its usage throughout the target areas.

The community initially need to be mobilized and their interest for development, need to be created along with the awareness on the application of clean technology. The project aims to irrigate rural area of Terai by implementing low cost local Wind Pump. Technical know-how for model village initially is provided to local manufacturers to construct and manufacture using best available raw material. These local wind pumps will be affordable at low cost and easy maintained on local hands. Manufacturers improve and expand their entrepreneurship increasing their income. So, it is expected to reduce unemployment to some extent in that locality.
 

Picture: Local Wind Pump in action

The first step in project methodology is to find out the problem and the issue in the corresponding place. Social mobilization is the important aspect in implementing this project, which includes:

• Training youths and children, as they are active element in the community
• Community mobilization through active participation of youth
• Community orientation for better involvement
  
  

Formation of Users’ group / formation of saving and credit group and training.The supporting activities that should be included on the process of implementation are as follows:

• Baseline information collection has to be done which includes pre-feasibility studies
• Most of the rural populace will not be able to afford the capital cost of the Wind Pump though cost of one set is only US$200. Therefore micro financing mechanism will be developed and the relevant trainings will be given. Wind Pump will be provided – not on subsidy – but on interest free credit. Repayment would not be an additional financial burden since the household would earn extra income by selling the additional production.
• Trainings to the local entrepreneurs (along with the manuals)
• Training on marketing and maintenance of the wind pump (along with the manuals)
• Website developing and updating
• Publication of brochure
• Monitoring and Evaluation

We know that wind power stand in the second biggest source of renewable energy in the world. But the appropriate use of this energy has not been seen in Nepal. The local wind pump is designed to use the wind power which requires less wind speed than that of the conventional one making it applicable to those areas where wind energy potential is low.

The idea of using Local Wind Pump in irrigation of vegetable farms is innovative by following reasons:

• The basic idea behind mobilizing local entrepreneurs for manufacturing the local wind pump is because of ease of manufacturing, installation, repair and maintenance since they are familiar with locally available materials. It requires low speed wind (2-3m/s) for its operation which is available in most of areas of Terai region.
• Also, the project is cost effective to the poor people in a locality where a person has less than 1$ income per day. Local Wind Pump costs 80% less than conventional wind pump and can be purchased by individual poor farmer.
• The system is portable and can be installed at desired place with simplicity while dismounting during the high wind speed is another innovation, which will certainly help in replacing the diesel pumps in the rural Terai in the mass scale.
• The application of freely available wind and its combination with enterprise development and supportive activities in raising the quality of life of the target community can be considered as another innovative approach.

 

It is anticipated that at the end of the project following results will be achieved-

• A simple design of the unit with expected efficiency and output at low price.
• High number of farmers attracted and inspired to use the technology.
• Increased amount of cultivation, particularly vegetables.
• Increase in daily income of the users.
• Rekindling of confidence on harnessing of wind energy in Nepal

Sustainability of the project is linked with the technology used and the recurring expenses to maintain it with the interest of the targeted community and the long-term benefit that they would be getting.

The economic condition of people in Terai is poor, so they cannot afford costly diesel pumping set nor can they afford solar PV water pump even on subsidies. Local wind pump uses freely available wind energy and hence, has no recurring operational cost and very limited maintenance costs.

LWPs locally manufactured are cost competitive to other alternatives; hence low cost LWP will be right and genuine choice to irrigate their farms on sustainable way. It is environmental friendly, non-polluting, easily manufactured by local hands using locally available material which can provide an alternative to the use of diesel, kerosene, or other fuelled pumping system.

The major obstacle would be creating social mobilization and this component will be initiated at the beginning to overcome the challenge.
 

As freely available low speed wind energy about 2 or 3 m/s, is used for pumping ground water (about 30 feet), such projects are economically ideal for the area, which has ample wind potential and no electricity supply.

This proven-low-cost-technology is on the verge of implementation first time, once the installments start get paid, the amount accumulated in the revolving fund will increase and will further be used to disseminate the technology and to provide credit facility to still more people. Besides, any other organization will be able to replicate or scale-up this package in other parts of the country/region. It is anticipated that the approach and the technology would be spread to the rural population of different region/country. Even it can be trained to local manufacturers within few months. This technology will be highly successful among the farmers; it can be sold to and trained to other farmers and manufacturers.