**6. Managing groundwater via incentives from the energy sector**

Apart from water source, for sustainable groundwater irrigation incentives can be helpful to the poor farmers. In India, Ground water is considered to be the critical factor for crop growth, since the implementation farm power subsidies in 1970s, most farmers have electric connections. This leads to depletion of ground water. Solar power is considered to be climate change mitigation strategy which was introduced recently. This solar power is considered to be green alternative to electric pumps and versatile power. If carefully designed programmes are not implemented, it may endanger groundwater sustainability due to the drastic reduction in pumping cost. Effectively treated solar power is considered to be a 'cash crop'. The intervention of solar power results in production of excess power which urges the state's local electricity company to buys back the excess power from farmers. These profits of farmers can be used as an economic incentive to irrigate their crops effectively where groundwater and energy can conserved.

In India carbon emissions has been cut down by 4–5 percent per year by the use of solar power. The world's first solar cooperative was formed in Gujarat where researchers recently testing the 'smart solar pump" model. At the same time excess solar power can be purchased back at transaction costs than purchasing power from individual farmers. Sustainable groundwater use can be ensured if the model is scaled up. This model also helps in increasing the agricultural productivity and profitability, which reduces the demand for fossil – fuel energy and reduces the carbon emission into the atmosphere. **Figure 3** shows the application of technology and incentives achieved through them [10].

**Figure 3.** *Incentives via energy sector.*
