More than 95% of rural people in Dhanusha district rely upon diesel and monsoon water for farming practice. The proposed Ward no 5 of Lagama Gadagauli VDC of Dhanusa VDC, which is located at the southern side of the district, is mostly inhibited by Muslims and Tatma (Terai Dalit). The household population is around 3300 with nearly 1000 households are concentrated in ward no 5. The area is popular for vegetable farming where vegetables like potato, cauliflower, pumpkin, gourd, bean, brinjal and ladies finger are grown and sold at nearby market place in Mangarain and Phulgama bazzar.
The average households consumes 1000 liters of diesel in a year for irrigation through diesel pump. Considering diesel price as Rs 95, average household spent Rs 95,000 for irrigation per year. Likewise, consuming 1000 liters of diesel emits 360tones/yr of C02 per annum. Thus, the project proposes to install 30 affordable and durable Sun Flower pump to replace the diesel pump. It has a solar panel of 80 Watt capacity with a DC motor. Installing 30 pumps would reduce the emission of 10800 tonnes of C02 per annul which directly contribute to mitigating climate change.
The Sun Flower pump has a comparative advantage over the diesel pump and other costly solar pumps.
As per ICIMOD, the installation cost of diesel pump for swallow tube-well (STW) and open tube-well (OTW) is Rs 30,000 and 40,000 per ha. respectively. Likwise for electric pump, the installation cost is Rs22,000/ha for STW and 35000/ ha for OTW. For deep tubewell, the installation cost is as high as Rs 135,000/ha. As farmers also need to spent for fuel and and maintenance in case of diesel pump, the per unit cost of agriculture production would be very high. Since electricity is not reliable, investing in electric pump is not a good option too. The installation of contemporary solar pump is also costly, which is around Rs200,000. Although, solar pump does not require fuel cost, the installation cost and maintenance cost are very high. The Sun Flower pump, on the other hand, cost Rs 60,000 which is cheaper than any other options described above. Likewise, it is easy to install and maintenance cost is very low.

the Sun Flower pump has capacity of 80 W Solar panel with DC motor. It can draw 2000 lit/hr and 900 lit/hr from 1m and 6m depth. It can pull water from 10m depth and can irrigate 0.2 ha per day. It also has provision to pump water with hand when there is no sun. Since the panel can easily be removed, the pump is very portable.
The pump is designed is such a way that it required minimum maintenance. The maintenance is as simple as that of a bicycle.
The technology is suitable in Terai region as there are many swallow tube well and perennial water source.