On July 11, 2022, Government of Nepal’s Nepal Renewable Energy Programme (NREP), funded by the British Embassy, Kathmandu (BEK), organized the Solar Irrigation Pump Knowledge Sharing Workshop. The workshop mainly targeted Development Partners (DP), Implementing Agencies (IM) and private sector organizations including Bank and Financial Institutions (BFIs). The aim of the program was to create a synergy among ongoing irrigation initiatives led by DPs and IMs and to add more solar irrigation pumping projects to the SECF project pipeline. Furthermore, the workshop aimed to increase the level of awareness on NREP, SECF, its support mechanism for irrigation system project development and investment, different business models. 45 participants (38 male and 7 female) actively participated in the program.

The program started with opening session where ongoing effort from Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC), opportunities and challenges in pumping for irrigation was presented by Dr. Laxman Ghimire, Assistant Director of AEPC. NREP introduced the programme and SECF mechanism. BE-K representative, Resha Piya highlighted the importance of synergy among different projects and opportunity to leverage private fund using SECF vehicle. The Executive Director (ED) of AEPC, Dr. Madhusudhan Adhikari encouraged the stakeholders to take advantage of SECF fund and urged them to work towards mobilizing irrigation facility from enterprising aspects. The panel discussion was facilitated by Mr. Suman Basnet with panellists from private company, financial institution, DP and research organization to explore more about the opportunities, challenges and way forward to upscale solar irrigation system in the country. NREP expects to have more collaboration among organizations and receive more SECF application in solar water pumps for irrigation in future.