The sustainable agriculture that our students implement using their e-STEM education is through agrovoltaics, which provides food security, creates green jobs and improves the socio-economic conditions of their marginalized rural community that has been disproportionately impacted by land degradation. Our solution, agrovoltaics, provides an effective, efficient and innovative solution to the competition for land use through the creation of synergies between renewable energies and agriculture, while promoting sustainable rural development and the protection of biodiversity and the ecosystem. It incorporates the dual use of land for both agriculture and for energy that relieves pressure on ecosystems and biodiversity.

 

This solution helps to trap moisture released by crops, thereby reducing both water use, and plant drought stress. The moisture in the air cools the solar photovoltaic panels, which helps the panels to perform better. Thus, this solution is overcoming the impacts of climate change while increasing the yield of agricultural crops, reducing water consumption and operating costs, all the while producing clean energy. Additionally, it elevates the migrant children's marginalized community out of poverty, providing food security as well as a steady source of revenue from farming that is not dependent on the weather.

 

The e-STEM education we provide to the migrant children of the Rann of Kutch has enabled the growth of sustainable clean-energy-powered agriculture in the community from zero to an end-user base of 95 migrant farmer families since January 2020.