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Under a punishing sun at noon, Devabhai Sawadiya slowly rakes the salt mold that has been in his family for generations. He is calm around him, with the exception of the radical movements of his salt broom and the sweet and washed dishes washed nearby.
It is a new development. For years, there were noisy and stammering diesel machines that were constantly running to pump the salted brine stuck under the ground, which the farmers then spread in the square fields to evaporate and produce salt crystals.
Now these are solar panels that dot the vast arid desert, feeding the pumps.
The passage to exploit the power of many hours of sun that shine on the Kutch district of the state of Gujarat de Kutch has considerably changed the life of Sawadiya.
“We finally make a profit because of solar, after years of work,” a 59 -year -old farmer told CBC News.
“Before [we got] Solar panels, there was barely enough money to eat and no longer a rupee. “”
The nomadic salt producers, called Agariyas, migrate from their villages through the state of Gujarat to the little Rann of the Kutch desert each fall as soon as the monsoon rains withdraw and camp in Berouteuse tents near the salt marshes for the eight -month harvest season.
They do not have the marshes they have worked for generations to make salt that India, the third largest salt producer in the world, needs.
These are government lands to which they come back each year to help produce around 30% of the Indian salt found inside the land, which is mainly table salt.
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Solar panels are increasing in the plains of the salt in western India, and farmers say that the CBC correspondent in South Asia Salimah Shivji, technology has completely changed their lives.
Until they receive help to buy the solar panels and install them next to their salt pans, the farmers would start each season with a debt season, forced to take strongly from salt traders so that they can buy the 15 diesel barrels that their old pumps need.
The costs borrowed could go up to 300,000 Indian rupees, or nearly $ 5,000 CDN, one season.
“We would come back with bags full of salt, but we ended up with nothing – not enough money,” said Sawadiya.
Diesel problems
Constant smoke and diesel toxins made them “sick and caused so many problems,” he added. His hands were also often stained with black to have to play with the machines.
The two Sawadiya solar panels now have a position of choice next to the family tent, where his young grandson, Kushti, plays. There is still a diesel pump that is only used as a backup at night or when it is cloudy.
“It is a relief for us that smoke has stopped,” said Sawadiya’s wife Jassiben Sawadiya.
“Life has improved after solar energy.”
The family was able to build a new house in their village and pay for their son’s wedding due to several thousand dollars he now saves each year without having to buy diesel fuel.
There is freedom because “we do not have to borrow money from someone else,” said Jassiben Sawadiya.
Heavy government grant
Most of the nearly 5,000 Agariya families working in the salt desert benefited from a large subsidy from the state of Gujarat and federal governments which covered 80% of the cost of a solar panel.
The initiative fits perfectly into the push of India to invest massively in renewable energies, while slowly trying to wean the country of its coal dependence.
The Southern Asian country still depends on the coal – the dirtiest of fossil fuels – for more than 70% of the power it generates.
Managers also quickly argued that India, as a developing country, is well right to continue authorizing coal power plants to open, even if it also favors clean energy.
However, the solar energy sector of India increases rapidly, with a solar capacity installed now greater than 108 gigawatts, according to the government’s press office. He was sitting less than three gigawatts ten years ago.
‘The exit is very good’
The country also focuses on the construction of large -scale solar farms, clusters of millions of rows and columns that produce clean power.
“With solar energy, farmers’ expenses are close to zero and production is very good,” said Bharatbhai Somera, who volunteered for years with the local NGO Agariya Heet-Rakshak Manch, which advocates the community of salt culture.
He grew up in an Agariya family in the salt desert and saw his father work constantly for little gain.
The solar panels of the little Rann of Kutch and the money they save now allow farmers to extend the harvest season, which means that the salt they produce is of better quality because it has more time to crystallize.
The transition to renewable energies has also repaired community obligations.
“With diesel, farmers had to keep an eye on the machine 24 hours a day,” said Somera. If there was a family function, the agariyas should jump it.
“Now solar work alone and they can go see their family and attend weddings.”
The impact of subsidies remains
But even if the advantages were obvious to Somera and his colleagues, he said that many demonstrations had taken and a lot of convincing of “letting the idea sink” with civil servants before the subsidy was approved.
It lasted five years, but the subsidy is no longer offered, even if the massive impact it had.
“The entire exploitation and poverty loop that has been taking place for generations, [the agariyas] Can break it in two to three years, “said Panki Jog, program director at Agariya Heet-Rakshak Manch.
She said most families now have at least one solar panel, but with the missing subsidy, an assistance system for insurance, in case the panel decomposes or deteriorates, would help most farmers.
Isolated life
Life in the vast arid desert surrounded by salt marshes is still very difficult, with a feeling of acute isolation.
There are no medical clinics or family doctors and children go to school on abandoned buses, with their motors removed, parked at random in the middle of the landscape burned by the sun.
One spring afternoon, a dozen children thrilled in one of the buses, sitting at small offices inside converted to the vehicle, with several older children leading a vocabulary check while the professor arrives.
There is a desperate wish of more opportunities among many salt producers, and solar energy provides part of the response.
Jerabhai Dhamecha, 34, has three daughters and a son, all in primary and college.
While shaking his large saucepan, bringing together the salt crystals on one side, he listed what his solar panels brought the family – a new brick house in their village, a new tractor, a motorcycle.
‘My grandfather had nothing’
Before solar energy changed everything, “we couldn’t even buy a bicycle,” said Dhamecha, 34.
“My grandfather had nothing. They transported water and brought it [to the fields] on foot. “”
It now makes about 60% more profits, without the cost of the diesel weighing it down.
Another Agariya sounded with a similar thought, because he has impatiently demonstrated how his solar water pump worked.
Kalubhai Surela, 58, compared the signs to have an additional son or have his father, for a long time, to come back to help the family earn a completely new salary.
“Our grandfathers only felt sadness in this desert. Their life was difficult,” said Surela.
“But now, after solar energy, there is pure joy here.”
