Punjab: Pilot Implementation of Direct Benefit Transfer for Electricity (DBTE) to Agriculture

The project aims to address and provide solutions towards three-dimensional interlinked challenge of declining ground water, increasing electricity consumption and rising fiscal burden of power subsidy on agriculture. In order to achieve the said objective, the project intends to help Government of Punjab and Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) pilot the DBTE scheme in three selected feeders in Punjab and refine the scheme on the basis of the learnings from this pilot for its wider implementation across Punjab.

In order to showcase ways for effective reduction in water withdrawals, demonstration farms were established. 17 demo-farms were setup under the project for the Kharif & Rabi season to facilitate adoption of water saving farm technologies and practices in paddy-wheat cropping system. The farmers were provided on-field training and regular guidance by experts to implement water efficient practices on a portion of their farm.

By adopting a simple on-farm package of practices, significant water was saved in cropping of paddy & wheat. Interventions such as alternate wetting and drying (AWD), plotting, laser levelling, short & medium duration paddy varieties and underground pipeline system were adopted in the demonstration farms to analyze the benefit from these interventions. There was a substantial impact of the interventions adopted on the resource conservation i.e. reduction in water withdrawal and energy savings of 6-30% in Kharif season and 5-21% in Rabi season was achieved.