Spowdi’s zero-emission irrigation system resonates with smallholders: Business Sweden – ThePrint
Text size:
Bengaluru / New Delhi (Karnataka) [India], November 22 (ANI / Mediawire): Four years after Sweden’s Greentech start-up Spowdi hand-picked for the India-Sweden Innovations Accelerator program, its zero-emission irrigation solution has resonated with farmers, says Business Sweden.
“We saw a lot of merit in bringing Spowdi’s innovation to India,” says Pawan Tahlani, Head of Sustainability (India) at Business Sweden. “When we heard about Spowdi’s solar-powered mobile irrigation pumps, we knew the innovation was right to empower smallholder farmers in India,” he added.
His statement comes just days after COP26, in which India announced its goal of increasing its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW and achieving 50% of its renewable energy needs by 2030.
Highlights:
* Tested in Indian conditions: Tested in several Indian terrains
* Zero diesel use. Relying on the sun as its only source of energy.
* Zero CO2 emissions: Compared to diesel pumps or other fossil fuel energy pumps used for irrigation of small farms.
* Efficient use of water for irrigation: Reduces water wastage and flooding of fields for irrigation.
* Enables better livelihoods: Spowdi’s mission is to enable farmers to diversify and increase their harvests and thereby become more profitable.
* Climate Positive – Contributes to climate action and Net Zero initiatives
* Make in India commitment: Spowdi has established a joint venture in Bengaluru.
India has about 125 million smallholder families who own an acre of land or less. With an irregular electricity supply and the rising diesel costs, farmers often flood their fields at once, resulting in a massive waste of water. Experts say these methods have led to inefficient use of groundwater, contributing to India’s water crisis. Furthermore, there are deep concerns about carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and their impact on the health and well-being of local agricultural communities. Fossil fuel-driven agriculture also affects India’s commitment to achieving net zero.
Since the start of Spowdi in India, its main mission has been to create clean and sustainable solutions that enable smallholders to build a more resilient food production system. Industry experts, including Business Sweden, believe that Spowdi’s solar-powered micro-irrigation system can handle the most pressing challenges facing India’s smallholders.
Spowdi’s mantra is Seeing Is Believing – A smart farm with zero emissions
Apart from their easy-to-use irrigation technology, Spowdi’s success and acceptance among farmers lies in their underlying goal of contributing to climate action, a cleaner environment and enabling better livelihoods.
“Spowdi has been very open to testing their solution under the most demanding agricultural conditions in India. Their view is that faith has benefited them by gaining traction and trust from a variety of stakeholders, from industry and CSR to distributors and farmers themselves.” , says Pawan Tahlani from Business Sweden.
In 2019, after months of extensive testing of Spowdi’s technology under extreme weather conditions in India, Spowdi created “The Spowdi Smart Farming” concept with its first Smart Farming R&D facility on the outskirts of Bengaluru. The demo farm on an acre uses drip irrigation powered by Spowdi’s Mobile Pro system. The irrigation system is completely solar-powered, with no need for diesel, which results in zero carbon dioxide emissions.
Video link: Spowdi Smart Farm, Bengaluru
The most important thing is that the demo farm is a living example of how small farmers can increase and diversify their crops on existing cultivated land and reduce a significant amount of water used, compared to floods in a farm of similar size. This reduced cost of irrigation can help save money and make them more profitable, thus contributing to a better quality of life for millions of smallholders.
Spowdi’s “Make in India” commitment
As part of its commitment to “Make in India”, Spowdi has established a joint venture for an assembly plant with Emmvee Spowdi Private Limited on their outskirts of Bengaluru. “We are pleased to contribute to India’s vision towards Net-Zero and are now scaling up our product in the Indian market,” says Henrik Johansson, founder and CEO of Spowdi AB.
This story is provided by Mediawire. ANI is not responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI / Mediawire)
This story is automatically generated from a syndicated feed. ThePrint is not responsible for its content.
Subscribe to our channels at Youtube & Telegram
Why news media is in crisis and how you can fix it
India needs free, fair, non-hyphenated and questionable journalism even more as it faces several crises.
But the news media is in a crisis of its own. There have been brutal redundancies and wage cuts. The best of journalism shrinks and gives in to gross spectacle in prime time.
ThePrint has the best young reporters, columnists and editors working for it. To maintain journalism of this quality, smart and thinking people like you are required to pay for it. Whether you live in India or abroad, you can do it here.
Support our journalism
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script',
'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');
fbq('init', '1985006141711121');
fbq('track', 'PageView');