PM-KUSUM (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan) is the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) scheme launched in March 2019 to solarise Indian agriculture. It bundles three components: Component A funds decentralised 500 kW to 2 MW grid-connected renewable plants on farmer or panchayat land; Component B funds 17.5 lakh standalone (off-grid) solar agriculture pumps of up to 7.5 HP; and Component C funds solarisation of 10 lakh existing grid-connected agriculture pumps, either as Individual Pump Solarisation (IPS) or as Feeder Level Solarisation (FLS). The Union Cabinet expanded the aggregate capacity target to about 30,800 MW in November 2020.

What subsidy do I get under PM-KUSUM Component B?

Under the MNRE PM-KUSUM scheme guidelines, standalone solar pumps under Component B carry 30% Central Financial Assistance (CFA) and 30% state subsidy, with the farmer's share at 40% of the benchmark cost (of which up to 30% can be financed through a bank loan). For the 8 North-Eastern states, Sikkim, J&K, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the Lakshadweep / A&N island UTs, the pattern is 50% CFA + 30% state + 20% farmer. Benchmark costs and capacity-wise rates are notified annually by MNRE. The pump must be from an MNRE-empanelled vendor and meets the BIS / MNRE technical specification.

What is the difference between IPS and FLS under Component C?

Individual Pump Solarisation (IPS) attaches a rooftop or pump-mount solar array to one farmer's grid-connected pump, with a net-metering arrangement so surplus generation is exported to the DISCOM. Feeder Level Solarisation (FLS) — added to PM-KUSUM in 2022 as a variant of Component C — solarises an entire 11 kV agriculture feeder by building a single MW-scale solar plant near the substation that feeds it; the farmers on that feeder continue to draw grid power as before, but day-time supply quality and DISCOM subsidy burden improve. FLS has emerged as the dominant Component C mode because aggregation at feeder level is operationally cheaper than vendor-by-vendor IPS.

Where do I install the Component A solar plant?

Component A plants are built on barren, fallow, pasture or cultivable land owned by farmers, groups of farmers, panchayats, co-operatives or FPOs, located within 5 km of an identified 33/11 kV or 66/11 kV DISCOM sub-station with available capacity. The plant size is 500 kW to 2 MW. The landowner can either develop the plant themselves (through a developer / EPC contractor on a build-own-operate basis) or lease the land to a developer; in either case the DISCOM signs a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for 25 years at a tariff discovered through state-level competitive bidding under MNRE guidelines.

Who is eligible and how do I apply?

All farmers, group of farmers, panchayats, co-operatives, FPOs and Water User Associations are eligible across the relevant components. The State Nodal Agency (SNA) — typically the state renewable energy development agency such as MEDA in Maharashtra, GEDA in Gujarat, REIL in Rajasthan, TEDA in Tamil Nadu, NREDCAP in Andhra Pradesh — runs the application portal for the state, publishes the year's empanelled vendor list, district-wise quotas and the benchmark rates. Farmers apply on the state portal with Aadhaar, land record, bank account and proof of an existing grid-connected pump (for Component C IPS). The MNRE central portal at pmkusum.mnre.gov.in lists state-wise links and live progress.

How much can a farmer earn from Component A?

Earnings depend on the discovered PPA tariff, the plant's annual generation and the project's capital structure. As a rough order of magnitude, a 1 MW solar plant in India generates roughly 14–17 lakh kWh per year at a typical capacity utilisation factor of 16–19%. At PPA tariffs that have cleared in recent state PM-KUSUM tenders (in the band of ₹2.80–₹3.30 per kWh), the annual revenue from a 1 MW plant works out to ₹40–56 lakh, against an indicative all-in capital cost of about ₹4–4.5 crore per MW. Farmers who lease their land to a developer typically receive a fixed annual lease (commonly ₹20,000–₹40,000 per acre, state and tender dependent) instead of taking on the operational risk.

What are the criticisms of PM-KUSUM so far?

Independent assessments — by NITI Aayog, the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), and several state evaluations — have flagged: (1) slow uptake versus the 25,750 / 30,800 MW target, with cumulative installed capacity well below the original 2022 milestone; (2) cost benchmarks that vendors say are tight in remote terrain, leading to under-bidding and quality issues on Component B pumps; (3) limited net-metering willingness from DISCOMs under Component C IPS, which has pushed states to prefer FLS aggregation; (4) land aggregation friction under Component A in fragmented holdings; and (5) the perennial issue that solarising free-power feeders without metering can entrench over-pumping unless paired with crop-diversification and soil-moisture extension. CEEW and Council recommendations push for FLS scale-up, AB-PMJAY-style geo-tagged monitoring and convergence with PMKSY-PDMC drip irrigation.

PM-KUSUM Guide — Solar Pumps, Grid-Connected Agri Solar and Component A / B / C Explained

PM-KUSUM— Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan — is the Government of India's flagship scheme for solarising Indian agriculture, administered by the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE). The scheme was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in February 2019 with an initial aggregate capacity target of 25,750 MW; the scope was expanded by the Union Cabinet in November 2020 to roughly 30,800 MW. PM-KUSUM tries to do three things at once: give farmers a renewable income stream, replace diesel and grid-powered irrigation pumps with solar, and reduce DISCOMs' agriculture subsidy burden by injecting day-time solar generation at the feeder level. This guide walks through each component, the subsidy structure, what farmers actually earn, how to apply through State Nodal Agencies, and the on-the-ground criticisms documented by NITI Aayog and CEEW. For the broader basket of farmer schemes, see our India government schemes for farmers reference; for the irrigation system that pairs with a solar pump, see our Per Drop More Crop (PMKSY-PDMC) guide.

The three components of PM-KUSUM

PM-KUSUM is built around three components, each addressing a different layer of the rural energy-irrigation stack:

Component A — Decentralised grid-connected solar / renewable plants

What: Small (500 kW to 2 MW) ground-mounted solar / renewable plants on farmer, group-of-farmer, panchayat, co-operative or FPO land, located within 5 km of an identified 33/11 kV or 66/11 kV DISCOM sub-station with spare evacuation capacity.
How it sells power: Through a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the local DISCOM at a tariff discovered by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) or by competitive bidding under MNRE guidelines.
Aggregate target: About 10,000 MW distributed across states.
Who builds it: The landowner can self-develop through an EPC contractor on a build-own-operate basis, or lease the land to a renewable developer for a fixed annual lease.

Component B — Standalone solar agriculture pumps

What: Installation of 17.5 lakh standalone (off-grid) solar agriculture pumps of capacity up to 7.5 HP in areas without grid connection or with very poor day-time supply. Higher capacities are permitted in some states with proportionally lower CFA.
Subsidy:30% Central Financial Assistance (CFA) + 30% state subsidy + 40% farmer share, of which up to 30% can be financed through a bank loan. For the 8 NE states, Sikkim, J&K, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Lakshadweep / A&N: 50% CFA + 30% state + 20% farmer.
Pump types eligible:AC and DC surface and submersible pumps complying with the relevant BIS specifications (e.g. IS 17387 for solar PV pumps) and MNRE's technical specification, sourced from an empanelled vendor list maintained by the State Nodal Agency.

Component C — Solarisation of existing grid-connected pumps

What: Solarisation of 10 lakh existing grid-connected agriculture pumps, either as Individual Pump Solarisation (IPS) or as Feeder Level Solarisation (FLS).
IPS:A rooftop or pump-shed solar array is attached to one farmer's pump under a net-metering arrangement with the DISCOM. Day-time solar runs the pump; surplus is exported to the grid. Subsidy pattern mirrors Component B.
FLS (added in 2022):A single MW-scale solar plant is built near a substation feeding an 11 kV agriculture feeder. The farmers on the feeder continue to draw grid power as before; the DISCOM's subsidy burden for free / concessional agriculture supply falls because day-time generation is met by the solar plant. FLS has emerged as the dominant Component C mode in states like Maharashtra (Mukhyamantri Saur Krishi Vahini Yojana 2.0) and Rajasthan because it aggregates the transaction.

Subsidy structure at a glance

The headline central + state + farmer split, per MNRE guidelines, is:

General states: 30% CFA + 30% state + 40% farmer (with bank loan covering up to 30% of farmer share).
Special-category states:50% CFA + 30% state + 20% farmer for the 8 NE states, Sikkim, J&K, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Lakshadweep and A&N Islands.
FLS: CFA of ₹1.05 crore per MW (or 30% of project cost, whichever is lower) released to the project developer / DISCOM, with the state recovering the balance through a competitively bid PPA tariff.
Benchmark cost: Capacity-wise benchmark costs (per HP for pumps; per MW for plants) are revised annually by MNRE; the CFA is computed on the lower of the benchmark cost or the tendered cost.

How PM-KUSUM connects with the rest of the on-farm package

A solar pump is only as valuable as the irrigation system downstream of it and the credit infrastructure around it:

Pair with drip / sprinkler under PMKSY-PDMC. A solar pump paired with flood irrigation does not save water — it just shifts the energy source. The biggest water and cost gains come when PM-KUSUM Component B is paired with PMKSY-PDMC drip or sprinkler so that the pump runs fewer hours and delivers water through a high-efficiency system.
Soil Health Card before fertigation. If the new system will include fertigation, check pH, EC and texture on your Soil Health Card first — high EC water through a drip plus fertigation rapidly accumulates salts in the root zone unless leaching is planned.
Finance the farmer's 40% share. The farmer share (or 20% in special-category states) can be financed through a Kisan Credit Card investment-credit loan or a term loan from a co-operative bank / RRB; some states have tied up with NABARD refinance lines for PM-KUSUM Component B specifically.
Post-harvest infrastructure. Where Component A income is being invested back into the farm, post-harvest assets eligible under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) (warehouses, primary processing, cold rooms) are a natural next step.
Plan installation against the season. Use the India crop calendar to commission the pump ahead of the next critical irrigation stage; commissioning mid-Rabi is the most common operational mistake.

Implementation route — who actually runs it on the ground

MNRE sets the scheme guidelines, releases CFA and runs the central monitoring portal at pmkusum.mnre.gov.in. The State Nodal Agency (SNA) is the actual implementer. Common SNAs:

Maharashtra:MEDA (Maharashtra Energy Development Agency), in convergence with the state's Mukhyamantri Saur Krishi Vahini Yojana 2.0 for FLS.
Rajasthan: REIL / Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation; one of the largest Component A pipelines.
Gujarat: GEDA (Gujarat Energy Development Agency), with sustained Component B pump uptake.
Tamil Nadu: TEDA / TANGEDCO for IPS and FLS pilots.
Andhra Pradesh: NREDCAP for Component B; AP has also piloted feeder-level solar through APGENCO.
Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand all have active SNA portals with state-specific subsidy top-ups in some districts.

How to apply — step by step

Find your State Nodal Agency. The MNRE portal at pmkusum.mnre.gov.in lists every SNA. Open the SNA portal for your state and check the current year's capacity allocation and district-wise quotas.
Choose the right component. Component A if you have barren / fallow / under-utilised land near a sub-station and want a recurring solar income; Component B if you do not have a grid pump and want to displace diesel; Component C IPS if you have a metered grid pump and a willing DISCOM; the state will run FLS centrally without farmer-by-farmer applications.
Pick an empanelled vendor. Only systems supplied and installed by MNRE / SNA-empanelled vendors qualify for CFA. The SNA portal publishes the vendor list, brand-and-model approvals and the benchmark rates.
Submit documents.Aadhaar, land record (pahani / 7-12 / patta as applicable), bank account, electricity bill or pump registration (for Component C IPS), category certificate (small / marginal where applicable), and the vendor's quotation.
Pay the farmer share or arrange the loan. Farmer share can be financed via Kisan Credit Card investment credit or a term loan; many states settle the central + state share directly to the vendor so the farmer pays only the residual share upfront.
Geo-tagging, commissioning and DBT. The installed system is geo-tagged and inspected by the SNA / DISCOM; CFA is then released as Direct Benefit Transfer to the farmer or directly to the vendor depending on the state settlement model.

Progress and ground reality

PM-KUSUM has scaled up materially through 2023–2025, particularly on Component B (standalone pumps) and Component C-FLS. However, cumulative capacity remains well below the original 2022 target of 25,750 MW and even below the revised 2026 trajectory of 30,800 MW, with the largest gap on Component A. Public dashboards on pmkusum.mnre.gov.in and Lok Sabha unstarred questions provide the latest cumulative numbers; refer to those for current figures.

Limitations and criticisms

Independent reviews by NITI Aayog, CEEW and the CAG have flagged recurring issues:

Slow Component A uptake. Land aggregation in fragmented holdings, DISCOM PPA reluctance at the discovered tariff and grid-evacuation bottlenecks at small sub-stations have all slowed deployment.
Under-bidding on Component B benchmarks.Tight capacity-wise benchmarks have pushed some vendors to under-bid in difficult terrain, leading to quality complaints and delayed O&M in remote districts.
DISCOM net-metering reluctance. Several DISCOMs resist net-metering for IPS because exported solar from an agriculture pump cuts into the cross-subsidy from commercial / industrial categories — which is why FLS has overtaken IPS in many states.
Over-pumping risk. Solarising free-power feeders without metering or convergence with drip can entrench over-pumping and accelerate groundwater decline, particularly in over-exploited blocks. CEEW recommends pairing PM-KUSUM with metered DBT, drip adoption and crop diversification.

Related guides on this site

To plan a PM-KUSUM Component B / C installation that actually saves water (and money), start with your Soil Health Card to check pH, EC and texture; design a paired PMKSY-PDMC drip or sprinkler system so the pump runs fewer hours; finance the farmer's share through Kisan Credit Card investment credit; and align commissioning with the India crop calendar. For post-harvest investment of Component A lease income or net-metering credits, see our Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) guide and the price-discovery side on e-NAM mandi guide. Browse the wider basket on India government schemes for farmers.

References

PM-KUSUM portal (pmkusum.mnre.gov.in) — MNRE central portal with state-wise SNA links and live progress.
Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (mnre.gov.in) — scheme guidelines, benchmark cost notifications and annual reports.
Press Information Bureau (pib.gov.in) — Cabinet approval of original scheme (Feb 2019) and expansion to ~30,800 MW (Nov 2020); periodic component-wise progress releases.
CEEW (ceew.in) — independent assessments of PM-KUSUM uptake, FLS scale-up and groundwater implications.
NITI Aayog (niti.gov.in) — analyses on agricultural electricity, solarisation and DISCOM subsidy reform.

Frequently asked questions

What is PM-KUSUM?: PM-KUSUM (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan) is the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) scheme launched in March 2019 to solarise Indian agriculture. It bundles three components: Component A funds decentralised 500 kW to 2 MW grid-connected renewable plants on farmer or panchayat land; Component B funds 17.5 lakh standalone (off-grid) solar agriculture pumps of up to 7.5 HP; and Component C funds solarisation of 10 lakh existing grid-connected agriculture pumps, either as Individual Pump Solarisation (IPS) or as Feeder Level Solarisation (FLS). The Union Cabinet expanded the aggregate capacity target to about 30,800 MW in November 2020.
What subsidy do I get under PM-KUSUM Component B?: Under the MNRE PM-KUSUM scheme guidelines, standalone solar pumps under Component B carry 30% Central Financial Assistance (CFA) and 30% state subsidy, with the farmer's share at 40% of the benchmark cost (of which up to 30% can be financed through a bank loan). For the 8 North-Eastern states, Sikkim, J&K, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the Lakshadweep / A&N island UTs, the pattern is 50% CFA + 30% state + 20% farmer. Benchmark costs and capacity-wise rates are notified annually by MNRE. The pump must be from an MNRE-empanelled vendor and meets the BIS / MNRE technical specification.
What is the difference between IPS and FLS under Component C?: Individual Pump Solarisation (IPS) attaches a rooftop or pump-mount solar array to one farmer's grid-connected pump, with a net-metering arrangement so surplus generation is exported to the DISCOM. Feeder Level Solarisation (FLS) — added to PM-KUSUM in 2022 as a variant of Component C — solarises an entire 11 kV agriculture feeder by building a single MW-scale solar plant near the substation that feeds it; the farmers on that feeder continue to draw grid power as before, but day-time supply quality and DISCOM subsidy burden improve. FLS has emerged as the dominant Component C mode because aggregation at feeder level is operationally cheaper than vendor-by-vendor IPS.
Where do I install the Component A solar plant?: Component A plants are built on barren, fallow, pasture or cultivable land owned by farmers, groups of farmers, panchayats, co-operatives or FPOs, located within 5 km of an identified 33/11 kV or 66/11 kV DISCOM sub-station with available capacity. The plant size is 500 kW to 2 MW. The landowner can either develop the plant themselves (through a developer / EPC contractor on a build-own-operate basis) or lease the land to a developer; in either case the DISCOM signs a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for 25 years at a tariff discovered through state-level competitive bidding under MNRE guidelines.
Who is eligible and how do I apply?: All farmers, group of farmers, panchayats, co-operatives, FPOs and Water User Associations are eligible across the relevant components. The State Nodal Agency (SNA) — typically the state renewable energy development agency such as MEDA in Maharashtra, GEDA in Gujarat, REIL in Rajasthan, TEDA in Tamil Nadu, NREDCAP in Andhra Pradesh — runs the application portal for the state, publishes the year's empanelled vendor list, district-wise quotas and the benchmark rates. Farmers apply on the state portal with Aadhaar, land record, bank account and proof of an existing grid-connected pump (for Component C IPS). The MNRE central portal at pmkusum.mnre.gov.in lists state-wise links and live progress.
How much can a farmer earn from Component A?: Earnings depend on the discovered PPA tariff, the plant's annual generation and the project's capital structure. As a rough order of magnitude, a 1 MW solar plant in India generates roughly 14–17 lakh kWh per year at a typical capacity utilisation factor of 16–19%. At PPA tariffs that have cleared in recent state PM-KUSUM tenders (in the band of ₹2.80–₹3.30 per kWh), the annual revenue from a 1 MW plant works out to ₹40–56 lakh, against an indicative all-in capital cost of about ₹4–4.5 crore per MW. Farmers who lease their land to a developer typically receive a fixed annual lease (commonly ₹20,000–₹40,000 per acre, state and tender dependent) instead of taking on the operational risk.
What are the criticisms of PM-KUSUM so far?: Independent assessments — by NITI Aayog, the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), and several state evaluations — have flagged: (1) slow uptake versus the 25,750 / 30,800 MW target, with cumulative installed capacity well below the original 2022 milestone; (2) cost benchmarks that vendors say are tight in remote terrain, leading to under-bidding and quality issues on Component B pumps; (3) limited net-metering willingness from DISCOMs under Component C IPS, which has pushed states to prefer FLS aggregation; (4) land aggregation friction under Component A in fragmented holdings; and (5) the perennial issue that solarising free-power feeders without metering can entrench over-pumping unless paired with crop-diversification and soil-moisture extension. CEEW and Council recommendations push for FLS scale-up, AB-PMJAY-style geo-tagged monitoring and convergence with PMKSY-PDMC drip irrigation.

PM-KUSUM scope, benchmark costs and state-specific top-ups are revised periodically by MNRE and the State Nodal Agency. Capacity targets, subsidy splits and tariffs summarised above follow publicly available MNRE guidelines and PIB releases; farmers and FPOs should verify current rates on pmkusum.mnre.gov.in and the relevant State Nodal Agency portal before applying.