When people talk about India’s climate, they often talk about big solar farms in the Thar Desert or big gigawatt announcements in Gujarat. But the biggest change in energy use might be happening quietly in India’s villages, next to borewells, tube wells, and dusty transformer sheds.
The PM-KUSUM project, which started in 2019, is more than just about solar power. It is an effort to change the political economy of Indian agriculture by turning farmers from energy consumers into energy producers. The question is whether it works.
For decades, India’s agricultural electricity has been a financial black hole. States give farmers free or heavily subsidised electricity, which is a politically sensitive duty that has led to more groundwater use and the bankruptcy of distribution companies. In the meantime, millions of diesel pumps hum over India’s fields, releasing carbon and hurting the incomes of people who live in rural areas.
PM-KUSUM tried to break this cycle. The design looks simple, but it’s not.
● Part A: Let farmers and cooperatives build small, decentralised solar plants (up to 2 MW) and sell the power they make to DISCOMs.
● Part B: Use stand-alone solar pumps instead of diesel irrigation pumps.
● Part C: Add solar panels to existing grid-connected pumps so that farmers can sell extra electricity back to the grid.
The funding model, which includes a 60 per cent subsidy from the Centre and the state, a 30 per cent institutional loan, and a 10 per cent contribution from the farmer, tries to find a balance between making it affordable and giving ownership.
This is the perfect way to make policy: turn subsidies into capital, move revenue outflow to asset creation, and match climate goals with support for rural income.
Even though there are other financial pressures, the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy still gives PM-KUSUM the most money. The program’s deadline has been pushed back to March 2026, which means it will continue instead of quietly ending. More crucially, PM-KUSUM has been integrated into larger agricultural and infrastructure funding ecosystems, including a partnership with the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund. This policy embedding indicates that the government views it as part of a structural reorientation of agricultural energy, rather than as a stand-alone experiment.
State governments such as Rajasthan and Maharashtra have aggressively promoted feeder-level solarisation under Component C, with the goal of solarising entire agricultural feeders rather than individual pumps. This takes the strategy away from an individual asset paradigm and toward system-level transformation.
However, prioritising on paper does not necessarily result in transformation on the ground.
Recent updates from the government say that the plan has led to the installation of more than nine lakh (0.9 million) independent solar pumps. The installed renewable capacity under PM-KUSUM has gone over 10 GW, but it is still below the original goal for full rollout.
In places like Rajasthan, solar feeder installations are being put up on a large scale. In other cases, credit problems, DISCOM's reluctance, and delays in administration have made it hard to put plans into action. The plan has definitely moved on from the pilot stage. But it’s not clear if it will reach a systemic tipping point. PM-KUSUM is at the crossroads of three areas that are causing a lot of debate:
● Populism in agriculture
● Changes in the energy sector
● Management of groundwater
Solar pumps make it possible to water plants during the day without fail. This makes farmers less dependent on unreliable nighttime supply, which has been a long-standing complaint. But if regulatory frameworks don’t get better at the same time, reliable power could lead to more groundwater extraction.
In other words, solarisation without aquifer management could make one environmental problem worse after another. There is also a problem with DISCOMs. Sometimes, distribution companies that are already having money problems don’t want to buy decentralised solar power at a set price. When state governments are politically active and good at running things, the economy works best.
In places where institutions aren’t as strong, progress has been uneven.
The way PM-KUSUM gives out subsidies looks like it will help people. But the way it is designed raises some questions.
The 10 per cent contribution from farmers may seem small. But for small farmers who don’t have the right land titles or access to banks, even this first cost can be very high. People who rent land or don’t own any land and farm it themselves are often left out of Component A because they can’t legally farm on land they don’t own.
There is also the question of who makes money from selling extra electricity. In theory, Component C makes farmers into “prosumers.” In reality, only people who own a lot of land and have the right pumps can make a lot of extra money.
The scheme’s promise of fair distribution of resources depends mostly on targeting at the state level and holding people accountable for their actions.
PM-KUSUM is very similar to India’s promises to protect the environment around the world. It helps to expand renewable energy sources that aren’t tied to a central grid, cuts down on diesel use, and helps the country reach its non-fossil energy capacity goal.
But its real meaning is somewhere else.
Instead of being a recipient of subsidies, it sees the farmer as an active partner in the energy revolution. It changes the reason for electrifying farms from giving people what they want to making them more productive with their assets.
If it includes protections for groundwater and fair access measures, PM-KUSUM could be one of the most important rural policy initiatives of the decade.
People often talk about India’s energy transformation in terms of gigawatts and investment flows. PM-KUSUM tells a more complicated story: borewells buzzing under solar panels, farmers watering their crops all day, and extra electrons flowing back into weak rural grids.
It’s not that big of a deal. It is gradual, technological, and administrative. However, if it works, it could be more disruptive than the giant solar parks that are currently in the news. Climate policy is not an abstract idea in India’s dry areas. It is measured in the number of crop cycles, pump hours, and the depth of the groundwater. The legacy of PM-KUSUM won’t be decided in conference rooms, but in how it changes everyday calculations in a way that lasts.
If it can find the right balance between making money, protecting the environment, and being fair, it could be India’s quiet agricultural revolution.
Anusreeta Dutta is a columnist and climate researcher with experience in political analysis, ESG research, and energy policy
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth