Pravinbhai Punjabhai Parmar, 30, says his cooperative has sold 2.40 lakh units (kWh) of solar electricity to a Gujarat state utility since May 2016, and earned Rs 14.35 lakh. It has also sold irrigation worth Rs 16 lakh to fellow farmers who do not have tubewells. The nine members of the cooperative together own 38 bighas (8.5 hectares), and not only reduced their cost of irrigation in averted diesel use but also got a neat stream of revenue to supplement their meagre income—about Rs 1.5 lakh annually, each—growing paddy, millet, wheat, and tomato.
Parma, 30, is secretary of the Dhundi Saur Urja Utpadak Sahakari Mandali (or Dhundi Solar Energy Producers Cooperative). It is based in Kheda, whose milk producers’ union, named after the district, became a model for cooperative dairying under the Amul brand. Dhundi has inspired similar cooperatives under the state government’s
