Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Shri Pralhad Joshi announced that the next phase of the PM-KUSUM scheme will include a dedicated component for agrivoltaics, enabling farmers to continue farming while earning additional income from electricity generation. The focus will be on small and marginal farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations, cooperatives, and panchayats, with land ownership remaining with farmers. This approach provides three income streams: from crop sales, power sold to DISCOMs, and savings on diesel, offering income security independent of monsoon conditions and market prices.
India has significant renewable energy achievements, having added 55.29 GW of non-fossil capacity last year - more than the entire installed power capacity of Norway (40.6 GW), Switzerland (around 30 GW), Austria (34 GW), and Belgium (around 33 GW). Under PM-KUSUM, approximately 29 lakh pumps have been solarized, with decentralized solar contributing 16.3 GW comprising 7.6 GW from PM-KUSUM and 8.7 GW of rooftop solar under PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, which is reaching 5.6 million beneficiaries.
The Minister highlighted India's agricultural context, noting that the country has 18% of the world's population but only 2.4% of the world's land, with more than 85% of farmers being small and marginal farmers cultivating less than 2 hectares. Agrivoltaics allows for dual land use without choosing between crops and solar plants. Research is ongoing, with examples like BAIF's Rural Innovation Centre in Pune testing 17 solar configurations across 30 crops to determine optimal combinations of crop, panel height, spacing, tracking system, and business model for different farming conditions.
Stakeholders were urged to focus on developing structures that allow farm machinery movement and withstand local weather conditions, while ICAR, agricultural universities, and Krishi Vigyan Kendras were called upon to generate crop-wise and region-wise data. India has trained almost 70,000 Surya Mitras to build village-level skills, and the country's experience with small holdings, abundant sunshine, and developing grids is considered particularly relevant to the Global South.
The 7th Agrivoltaics World Conference 2026 will be held from October 21st to 23rd at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, bringing together farmers, policymakers, researchers, industry leaders, and international delegations. The conference will feature an Agrivoltaics Pitch Hub on "Fueling Farm to Fork Innovations" with the National Solar Energy Federation of India as knowledge partner, built around the 3F framework of Food, Fuel and Fibre. The event aims to advance farmer-centric, sustainable agrivoltaics solutions and strengthen India's role in shaping global discourse on the sector.