Switch ON: Water Entrepreneurship Initiatives

Abstract

SwitchON-O’Nergy, a social start-up established in 2008 set itself the primary objective of installing solar powered lighting in Eastern India. In 2015, the company launched a program titled “Powering Agriculture - Community based Solar Energy Pumps” in West Bengal and Odisha. This case is on the promotion of Water Entrepreneurs - through the setup of Solar Energy powered irrigation pumps. Switch ON set up a First Loss Default Guarantee (FLDG) with Axis Bank and RBL Bank for connecting small and marginal farmers to the bank to avail loans for solar powered irrigation pumps. The water entrepreneur replaces his diesel pump with a solar energy pump to irrigate his field and in addition, sells water to neighboring farmers by creating a water user group (WUG) or a Joint Liability Group (JLG). Switch ON acted as a catalyst for banks to build confidence on solar energy pump lending and the farmers were able to access the much-needed technology. This financial innovation and ecosystem creation coupled with technology innovations supported water conservation and better soil. The solar energy pumps saved the farmer the expenditure incurred for buying fuel for running diesel pumps; provided the farmers a reliable source of irrigation through a solar energy pump; and prevented harmful pollution to the soil from running diesel pumps. The case demonstrates the ability to convert famers to water entrepreneurs.