The impact of solar water pumps on energy-water-food nexus: Evidence from Rajasthan, India

This paper seeks to identify the causal impact of solar water pumps on the consumption of water, electricity and diesel as well as the gross cropped area under fruits and vegetables and profits of farmers. We use the difference-in-differences approach with a sample of 414 rural farmers from six districts of Rajasthan for this purpose. We find that the adoption of the solar water pump has impacted energy-water-food nexus by increasing average groundwater consumption of adopters over baseline in the districts of Jaipur and Sikar by 16–39%; reducing average electricity consumption of adopters over baseline in Jaipur and Sikar by 1–17% and in Sri Ganganagar by 17–134%; reducing average diesel consumption in Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Sri Ganganagar and Chittorgarh by 50–106%; increasing food security of adopters as indicated by an increase in average cropping intensity in Jaipur and Sikar by 2–10% and in Bikaner by 2–9%, and expansion in gross cropped area under fruits and vegetables in Jaipur by 12–53% and Bikaner by 10–116%; increasing income security with higher annual profits for solar pump adopters in Jaipur and Sikar by 3.1–41.5% and in the diesel-using districts by 14–76%.