Association between the Independent Variables with Knowledge Level of Adopter and Non-adopter Farmers about the Solar-powered Water Pumping System in Haryana

Description

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21357053

Rohtash Kumar¹, Ashok Kumar², Rupender Kumar³, Rajesh Kumar⁴, and Anil Kumar⁵ (KVK Mandkola, Haryana^1,2, KVK Rohtak, Haryana³, DTPO O/o ADP, Haryana⁴, KVK Yamunanagar, Haryana⁵, and CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana^1,2,3,4,5)

A solar-powered pump operates on electricity generated by solar photovoltaic panels from collected sunlight rather than grid electricity or diesel. Consequently, solar energy serves as both a solution to the ongoing energy crisis and an environmentally friendly alternative. Demonstrating this shift, India’s cumulative installed solar capacity reached 55 GW, with grid-connected utility-scale projects contributing 77 per cent, grid-connected rooftop solar making up 20 per cent, and mini or micro off-grid projects accounting for the remaining 3 per cent. Against this backdrop, the present study was undertaken to analyze the association between independent variables and the knowledge level of both adopter and non-adopter farmers regarding solar-powered water pumping systems in Haryana. Three districts, Yamunanagar, Jhajjar and Hisar of Haryana state were selected purposively and two villages were selected randomly from each of the three districts. A total of 40 farmers from each of the three districts were selected, and from each of 6 villages, 10 farmers who adopted SPWP and 10 who did not adopt SPWP were selected to measure knowledge, attitude and training needs. As a result, the researcher carried out personal meetings with 120 farmers at their farms or homes. Education (r=0.270), income (r=0.268), land holding (r=0.273), social participant (r=0.254), knowledge of govt. policies (r=0.251) and risk orientation (r=0.271) were positively correlated with the knowledge level of adopter SWPS, whereas SWPS non-adopters, age (r = -0.096), family size (r=-0.095), land holding (r=-0.216), and risk orientation (r=-0.097) were negatively correlated with knowledge level and were not significant.