Green Solutions towards Livelihood enhancement

Energy is the most essential tool of development and is considered as instrumental to stimulate economic, social and physical development. Energy or power take most important role in providing basic services such as safe drinking water, lighting, health care, education, etc. It also enables for better standards of living and fuelling economic and income generation activities. The availability of electricity in rural India is important for its overall development. The rural economy is broadly divided into farm and non-farm sectors. While agriculture has remained the primary source of income for most of rural India. Achieving higher and stable productivity in these rural livelihood sectors requires access to reliable energy supply, whether electric, mechanical and or thermal. However, a large proportion of rural areas do not have a reliable supply of energy, and are particularly unserved or underserved by grid electricity and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Biomass fuels are also becoming expensive. Renewable energy is the only viable solution that can provide a more affordable and reliable alternative to biomass fuels. The present status of power generation in the state is not satisfactory from the point of power requirement of consumers concerned. Assam possessing immense potential of power ranging from hydel to natural gas including oil and coal resources, the progress of this sector in the State has not taken place on a scale commensurate with the possibilities. As a result, there exists a big gap between availability and demand for power in the State.
Grameen Sahara started the initiative of Clean Cooking with the support of Help a child of India (HACI) along with Innovative Change Collaborative (ICCO) have implemented a project by the name “Rural Access to Clean Energy” RACE for safeguarding the environment of the targeted areas under the project. With a view to reduce indoor air pollution which in turn will reduce child mortality and also shifting of dependency from conventional energy to alternative energy like solar energy. The major objective of the project is to provide smokeless Chulaha as well as solar lantern to 1000 no of beneficiaries in two Tea Estates of Nalini and Hatimara under Tinsukia District of Assam. Similarly, Grameen Sahara has also executed of the project on “Value Addition of Rice of Assam with Clean Energy” with the support of SELCO Foundation. The project was undertaken with a view to promote Gaba Amino Acid enriched Brown Rice as a part of value addition. In the field of Agriculture promotion, community owned solar operated irrigation unit of 5HP capacity has been installed covering. Similar interventions of 2HP submersible pumps have been supported to the FIGs towards horticulture promotion.
Also, looking at the demand and potentiality of Country Poultry, Solar operated Egg incubators have been provided to the entrepreneurs on part subsidy and part grant. We have seen that there is an subsequent increase in their income and most of them has extended the capacity of their incubators for increased production.