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In March of 2025, the ICRIER Agri-PV team went to Rajasthan to explore the possibility of running an agriphotovoltaics (Agri-PV) pilot in the Indian state. The Agri-PV model, which we wrote about in a NextBillion article earlier this year, allows farmers to grow crops and generate solar power on the same land, by elevating the ground-mounted PV panels to make space to cultivate the land underneath. Though we later implemented this pilot in both Rajasthan and Odisha, at the time it was a little more than a hypothesis, and testing it meant finding a farmer who was willing to bet on an idea that existed mainly on paper (at least in the Indian context).

Laying the groundwork for these pilots was a slow, iterative process involving one site visit after another, conversations with power distribution companies (DISCOMs) to understand their concerns, and discussions with farmers who were interested in the additional income but understandably cautious about the risks. DISCOMS are one of the key stakeholders in such projects, as they are the entity that buys the energy generated by the Agri-PV plant.

Somewhere along the way, during this process of testing, questioning and recalibrating our approach, we met Kajod Mal, a farmer in Kundanpura, Rajasthan who already owned a 600-kW ground-mounted PV. He is the farmer with whom we partnered to launch Rajasthan’s first farmer-owned Agri-PV plant under the Indian government’s PM-KUSUM programme. But before he agreed to engage in this programme, he asked us a question that revealed a fundamental concern — one with important implications for the uptake of solar energy projects among Indian farmers.

“After you implement this project, will I still be able to farm and reclaim my fertile agriculture land?” It was one of the first questions he asked us, even before we could finish explaining the fundamentals of an Agri-PV plant.

The question exposed a contradiction we had been grappling with ourselves. India is now the world’s third-largest producer of solar power, and government programmes such as PM-KUSUM have played an important role in expanding renewable energy installation while creating new income opportunities for farming communities. As part of PM-KUSUM, farmers can install grid-connected solar plants on their land and sell electricity to the grid — a significant policy innovation that aligns India’s clean energy ambitions with rural livelihoods. But while the programme originally envisioned the installation of these ground-mounted power plants on barren land, some farmers, like Kajod Mal, decided to install them on fertile agriculture land. Their reasoning was that it made sense to prioritise energy generation, a steady source of higher income, over the more volatile and lower returns they could generate from farming this land.

Before installing his ground-mounted solar plant under PM-KUSUM, Kajod used to cultivate wheat and millet and earned roughly INR 40,000 per acre annually. After installing a ground-mounted plant and just selling energy to the local distribution company at Rs 3.14/kWh, his net annual income per acre jumped five to seven times. On paper, the programme worked exactly as intended. Yet standing in his field, we saw something it did not capture: The solar panels stretched across the land from edge to edge. The soil that had sustained Kajod’s family for generations could no longer support a single crop. As someone who had farmed all his life, he told us that he missed farming: We saw that the solar plant that was boosting his income was also impacting his sense of identity, and his connection to the land.

This farmer’s experience pointed to a larger question about how India can expand renewable energy without compromising its agricultural land. Conventional ground-mounted solar can generate substantial energy income, but when installed on productive farmland, it can displace cultivation for decades. Agri-PV offers a way to avoid this trade-off. By elevating solar panels up to 10 feet and designing the system around agricultural operations, the same parcel of land can continue to produce both electricity and crops. The objective is therefore not to force farmers to choose between food and energy, but to enable them to produce both, creating an integrated model in which the expansion of clean energy does not come at the expense of food production and agricultural livelihoods. In fact, Agri-PV offers an opportunity to rethink not only how solar infrastructure is designed, but also how policy adjustments could better support farmers’ livelihoods.

To help make the case for this shift in focus, with support from Kotak Mahindra Bank’s CSR initiative, our team decided to retrofit Kajod Mal’s existing ground-mounted solar plant into Agri-PV. We knew the engineering design would be challenging, particularly in ensuring structural integrity. What we underestimated was the complexity of implementation on the ground. We initially assumed that once the technical design was finalised, retrofitting the plant would be largely an engineering exercise. In practice, the bigger challenges lay in coordinating people, processes and institutions. These experiences shaped the lessons we share below.

Designing the Solar Farm Around the Farmer

Going into this pilot program, it was tempting to view the retrofitting of Kajod’s existing PV plant as a series of engineering challenges: Raise the solar panels. Preserve the installed capacity. Complete the construction. Instead, we began with a much simpler question: “What do you want this land to grow?” His answer made his priority clear: He wanted the land to produce crops again, rather than using it solely to generate electricity. If the panels were elevated to approximately 10 feet, Kajod hoped to experiment with maize, tomatoes, cucumbers and chilies, going beyond the wheat and millet he had mainly grown prior to his original PV installation. The partial shade created by the elevated panels would offer different growing conditions and allow him to cultivate a wider range of crops. That answer reshaped our design plans. Row and column spacing, panel height, layout — we reworked all of this to allow these crops to be cultivated comfortably underneath the solar panels, and to allow agriculture machinery like tractors to operate smoothly in his field.

When the retrofit was complete, the same land that had once been completely occupied by solar panels now supported both electricity generation and agriculture. This enabled Kajod Mal to return to farming, and to once again make the key decisions every farmer must make about what to plant and where, based on his own preferences and understanding of the land and market. Seeing him make those choices for himself was an important reminder that the project was not just about adding agriculture beneath solar panels. It was about giving farmers the freedom to continue farming, while gaining a new source of income from the same land. When climate solutions complement livelihoods rather than compete with them, they become far more meaningful and more likely to be embraced by farmers.

Farmer trust in Agri-PV is built through dialogue

The challenges we faced in designing the Agri-PV plant around Kajod’s crop preferences were ultimately solvable. But asking him to dismantle a solar plant that was already generating a reliable income, on the promise that we would rebuild it into something better, was a different kind of challenge altogether. He did not agree immediately. Even though our project covered the retrofit costs, the decision still involved considerable uncertainty for him. It took us multiple rounds of discussions, negotiations and conversations about risk before we established enough trust for him to move forward.

The implementation phase tested that trust further. Kotak’s CSR initiative funded the pilot. The disbursement process took longer than planned because of the time required to complete the necessary documentation, finalise the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) process, sign the memorandum of understanding, and process the payment through ICRIER’s finance department. The elevated PV structure took longer to manufacture than expected. A lack of coordination between the EPC contractor and the local installation team stalled progress on site. At one point, the plant remained partially dismantled while everyone waited for the next step in the process to move forward.

For Kajod Mal, these were not just administrative delays. Retrofitting requires part of the plant to be shut off, so every day of implementation delay cut further into his steady energy income. Since he had dedicated all his farmland to his existing solar PV plant, these delays were impacting his livelihood. This phase of the project was our stress test, and there were moments when Kajod’s frustration was palpable. We had honored our financial commitments, but the work on the ground remained stalled because the EPC supplier missed the agreed-upon timeline and delivered the required materials and equipment later than expected.

What helped us navigate that period was continuous engagement from our end, along with Kajod Mal’s now-strong determination to turn this idea into reality. We kept visiting the site, explaining what was happening, acknowledging the delays with integrity, and staying engaged with him throughout this difficult phase. That experience fundamentally changed how we think about the implementation of Agri-PV projects. We often perceive trust as something that must be built before a project begins, but our experience suggested something different. Mutual trust might not be fully established before implementation begins; it develops and strengthens throughout the project.

Partnership is the most integral component of an Agri-PV project

By the time construction began, we thought the hardest part was behind us. It wasn’t. We still needed to work with a variety of partners, who often needed to spearhead new designs and processes to bring the project to completion. For this Agri-PV pilot, there was no single organisation that deserves full credit for turning our concept into reality. Every stage depended on various institutions that had never before collaborated on an Agri-PV project.

Throughout the transition, JVVNL, the local electricity distribution company, continued purchasing the electricity generated by the project under the existing agreement and on the same terms. Because this was Rajasthan’s first farmer-centric Agri-PV project, the local EPC contractor was attempting its first retrofit of this kind, and had to fabricate a structure unlike any it had built before. Our funding partner backed the idea even though Rajasthan had no proven model for implementing a farmer-centric Agri-PV project. Our role at ICRIER, as the ideation and implementation team, was to ensure that all of these moving pieces continued moving together. Finally, after almost a year of this collaboration and coordination, our collective effort bore fruit. Kajod’s Agri-PV plant was officially inaugurated on June 24 of this year.

Looking Ahead: Clean Energy that Doesn’t Leave the Farmer Behind

We began this journey with a simple question: Should a farmer choose between agriculture and clean energy?

When we first met Kajod Mal, he had already become an energy producer, but he had stopped being a farmer. The land beneath his solar panels was no longer being cultivated. A year later, that has changed. Standing beneath the elevated panels, watching maize and chilies grow on land where he had once stopped farming, Kajod is once again cultivating his fields. The first harvest is still ahead, so his agricultural income remains a projection. But the potential is significant. The original ground-mounted solar plant had increased his income to around five to seven times what he had earned from conventional farming, but at the cost of giving up cultivation. With the Agri-PV retrofit, he can now combine both sources of income, potentially earning around INR 450,000 per acre, per year — nearly 10 times his former income from conventional farming.

Beyond the substantial increase in his income, something more important has changed. Kajod Mal is not only farming again. He owns the solar project, explains the model to visitors, and is already considering leasing additional land for a second Agri-PV project. In the process, he is moving from being simply a beneficiary of such a project to becoming an active participant in it, and potentially an Agri-PV entrepreneur in his own right.

That, ultimately, is what our pilot demonstrates. Agri-PV is not simply about growing crops beneath solar panels. It is about designing the energy transition around the farmer, so that producing electricity does not come at the cost of producing food. With the right technology, finance and institutional support, farmers like Kajod do not have to choose between the two. They can farm the land, harvest the sun — and earn income from both.

Laxmi Sharma is a Research Associate, and Subhodeep Basu is a Research Fellow at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.

Photo: Kajod Mal’s Agri-PV plant in Kundanpura, Jaipur. Photo credit: Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations