Customers: Mr. Dilu Kadaraka & Mr Trinath Kadaraka
Location: Rayagada, Odisha, India
Farm size: 0.6 acres
Crops grown: Tomato, cabbage, chilli, peas, mustard, aubergine
About the farm
We visited the Kadaraka’s farm in Rayagada, India. They are proud owners of a Futurepump SF2 purchased from our distributor in NE India, Greenovera.
What’s remarkable about the 0.6 acres is the abundance of produce growing, with tomatoes, cabbages, chillies, peas, mustard, and aubergine amongst others. In the first 11 months of owning a solar pump, they have had three harvests.
Water is pumped from a lake; the pump is placed on the bank with the suction hose dropping two meters down to the water. The pump then pushes water up a further three meters and along a 120-meter hosepipe to reach the crops. They use the pump for three to four hours a day to irrigate sections of the 0.6 acres. It takes up to 1.5 hours to irrigate 600m2 (a quarter of the plot).
They power the SF2 with 300W of solar (3 x 100W) which allows them to pump for more hours in the day and this is especially helpful for using the pump in cloudy or misty situations.
If you want more information on selecting a solar panel for your situation – you can check out this video.
Getting technical
We often get customers asking us for example pump set ups, so we have produced the diagram below. It is interesting to see the total head calculation here. We have the suction height plus discharge height of two meters plus three meters making five meters head. Then we must consider the friction added by the 120 meters of 1.25-inch hosepipe. It’s quite a long way to be moving water so that results in around five meters more backpressure on the pump. So, the total head for this pump is around ten meters, even though the vertical height is not that far.
Looking at the 1.5 hours it takes to irrigate 600m2 this makes a lot of sense. For it to take that time to irrigate the water flowrate from the pump will be around 2000 L/hour – this matches our SF2 datasheet for a ten-meter total head.
At Futurepump, we are experts in the manufacturing of solar water pumps, with over 15,000 solar pumps sold in more than 20 countries – and counting!
We offer a range of solar water pumps to meet the needs of 1 to 2 acres farmers. All our solar pumps come with a market-leading 10-year warranty promise, so you can be confident that you are getting quality products that will irrigate your farm for years.
You can find out more about which of our solar water pumps is best for your farm along with details on where to buy at shop.futurepump.com