Tropentag 2023, September 20 - 22, Berlin, Germany "Competing pathways for equitable food systems transformation: trade-offs and synergies."

Unpacking stakeholder perceptions on challenges for increasing adoption of solar powered irrigation systems in India: A Q methodology study

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Thaer-Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sci., Germany

Abstract

Solar powered irrigation systems (SPIS) are seen as a means of increasing the share of renewable energy use in India, as agriculture is one of the main users of energy, with more than 30 million pumps, most of which run either on electricity (more than 60% of which is coal-based) or diesel. The government's efforts to promote the adoption of SPIS by implementing the policy “PM -KUSUM”, which provides subsidies on upfront costs, but have not delivered expected results due to low adoption of SPIS. The extent of adoption of technologies, including SPIS, also depends on stakeholder interactions and their perceptions of the technology itself as well as supporting infrastructure including policy settings. Inability to accommodate potential users’ concerns in the policies could hamper technology adoption. In this paper, we use the Q method to examine the shared views of stakeholders on challenges for increasing the adoption of SPIS. Literature on the subject indicates that there can be substantial heterogeneity in the perceptions even within stakeholder groups, and functional classification based on perceptions through Q method can provide a richer description of viewpoints, which policy makers can address. To capture the discourse on challenges to the adoption of SPIS, in addition to review of published literature, we conducted 14 in-depth interviews with different stakeholders. We shortlisted 60 statements and narrowed down and selected 20 unique and non-overlapping statements from these, followed by expert review to ensure that statements fully represent the breadth of perspectives on the topic. In a next step 30 purposefully selected respondents representing all stakeholder groups (farmers, researchers, officers of Ministry of new and renewable energy, engineers from utilities distributing power, input dealers, pump retailers, and service providers, line department officials) ranked and sorted the 20 statements on a 7-point bipolar agree-disagree scale. The collected data were subjected to by-person factor analysis to extract three distinct viewpoints on the challenges for expansion of SPIS. We observed heterogeneity in viewpoints within the stakeholder groups. We identified consensus statements indicating agreements and distinguishing statements that indicate differences in viewpoints across factors, which can guide future policies for out-scaling SPIS.

Keywords: Operant subjectivity, Q method, solar powered irrigation systems, stakeholder analysis

Contact Address: Aditya Korekallu Srinivasa, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Agrifood Chain Management, Berlin, Germany, e-mail: aditya.korekallu.srinivasastudent.hu-berlin.de