Holding a vision of Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE), and with a target of net-zero carbon emission by 2070, India plans to usher in a green industrial and economic transition through a movement with an environmentally conscious lifestyle. One of the credible options for a continuous, predictable, accessible and cost-free green energy source is solar power. In the agricultural sector, one of the key innovations in promoting solar irrigation was the initiation of the world’s first ever Solar Cooperative – Dhundi Solar Energy Producers’ Cooperative Society (DSEPCS) – in Gujarat, India. It addressed several key issues challenging the promotion of solar irrigation by creating a conducive environment, attracting investment, providing technical and consulting services, building capabilities among member farmers, connecting to Madhya Gujarat Vidyut Company (MGVCL) to buy back surplus solar energy, and ensuring an additional source of income for farmers in the region. This helped in popularizing and promoting the use of solar water pumps for bringing irrigation efficiency in the region and replacing electric and diesel pump sets. This intervention has the potential to save a significant amount of power subsidies and to provide additional income to the farming community. In this Good Practice Note, KK Tripathy and SK Wadkar discuss this notable institutional innovation.

In India, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) are considered as the most preferred institutional mechanism for enhancing productivity and income of farmers. This is based on the resounding success of a few farmer collectives that have aggregated their produce to realise better incomes. However, when efforts were made to scale up this interesting model across the country, several challenges emerged. Some of the major challenges for FPOs were lack of sufficient capacities among farmers in managing their collective enterprise and engaging with market actors, and absence of a collective voice to shape the enabling environment. To address these challenges and to strengthen the FPO ecosystem, the different stakeholders in the FPO ecosystem came together in 2017 to set up the National Association for Farmer Producer Organisations (NAFPO). Over the last few years, NAFPO’s network has expanded continuously with stakeholders ranging from the entire spectrum of the value chain, including FPOs across the country, state federations, financial partners, market players, technology service providers and academia. In this Good Practice Note, Aneesha Bali reflects on the performance of NAFPOs and how they contributed to institutional consolidation of FPO mobilization efforts that have resulted in integrating resources specific to the FPO sector and providing end-to-end functioning of FPOs.