India Hosts the First AgriVoltaics World Conference in the Global South as a Draft National AgriPV Policy Takes Shape
India opened the 7th AgriVoltaics World Conference in New Delhi, the first held in the Global South, and Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said a draft national agrivoltaics policy will be released for comment, citing potential on about 30% of the country's cropland.
India wants solar capacity without taking land away from farming. One answer is to put the panels above the crops.
That idea, agrivoltaics (or AgriPV), is the subject of the 7th AgriVoltaics World Conference, which opened at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on 21 October 2026 and runs until 23 October. It is the first time the international conference has been held in the Global South, and its theme, "Powering the Global South", reflects that. The government used the opening to announce that India is preparing a dedicated national agrivoltaics policy, which it plans to release in draft form for comment.
Who is behind it
The conference is hosted by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), with support from Germany's Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUV) and in partnership with Conexio-PSE, the organiser of the conference series. It was inaugurated jointly by Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi and Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Having the energy and agriculture ministers open it together signals that both ministries own the policy question.
Three resources were released at the opening:
- An AgriPV Policy Handbook from MNRE.
- A Decision-Making Tool developed by the India Agrivoltaics Alliance (IAA) to help project developers and planners assess sites.
- A Book of Abstracts compiled by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), gathering research presented at the conference.
What the ministers said
Pralhad Joshi described the potential at national scale. He said about 30% of India's roughly 160 million hectares of cropland could suit agrivoltaic projects. He also acknowledged the main barrier: agrivoltaic installations cost about 25–30% more than conventional ground-mounted solar, because the panels have to be raised higher, spaced more widely and designed around farm machinery and crop light needs.
He said a draft policy would be shared with states and the public for feedback. Plans to scale up and cut costs could draw on cooperation with Germany and on government schemes such as PM-KUSUM 2.0, the next phase of the farm-solar programme.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan focused on who the policy must serve. Small and marginal farmers make up more than 85% of India's farming community. He urged flexible AgriPV models designed for them and called for the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to work closely with MNRE. Joshi made a related point: most Indian farmers are small or marginal and cannot afford to give up farming on their land. Any agrivoltaic model therefore has to add solar income without displacing crops.
Why agrivoltaics matters for India
India's renewable-energy targets, including its goal of 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030, require large amounts of land. Utility-scale solar parks take roughly 4–5 acres per megawatt, and in many states the most suitable land is farmland. That puts energy and food security in direct competition, and has caused local resistance to land acquisition for solar parks.
Agrivoltaics tries to remove that conflict. Panels are mounted high enough, typically two metres or more, for farming to continue underneath, or arranged in rows with cultivated strips between them. The dual use can bring benefits beyond saving land:
- Shade and water: Partial shade can reduce evaporation and heat stress on certain crops, which matters in India's hotter and drier regions.
- Farmer income: Farmers can earn a steady income from electricity sales or land lease on top of an uncertain harvest.
- Distributed generation: Smaller plants located near rural load centres can reduce transmission losses and support agricultural feeders.
The trade-offs are real. Not every crop grows well under partial shade, structures can get in the way of mechanised farming, and the higher capital cost has to be recovered. That is why the evidence base matters. Germany's Fraunhofer ISE ran one of the best-known pilots, a 194.4 kWp plant at the Heggelbach farm near Lake Constance, which measured crop yields under the modules over several seasons. India has more than a dozen pilot projects of its own, run by research institutes, state agencies and private developers.
What a national policy would need to settle
A dedicated AgriPV policy would have to address issues that current solar and farm schemes do not fully cover:
- Definitions and standards: What counts as agrivoltaic, including minimum panel height, ground-cover ratio and required agricultural output, so the label cannot be used for ordinary solar parks.
- Land-use rules: Whether agrivoltaic land stays classified as agricultural, which affects tax, land-conversion and tenancy rules.
- Tariffs and incentives: How to cover the 25–30% cost premium, through capital subsidies, higher tariffs or linkage to PM-KUSUM.
- Farmer protection: Contract models that keep small farmers' rights and incomes intact when developers are involved.
Why it matters
Hosting the world conference and opening a national policy process together positions India to lead on how agrivoltaics works in smallholder, high-irradiance, water-stressed settings, which describe much of the Global South. If India can produce a workable model for a two-acre farmer, the policy, tools and data from these pilots could be used across South Asia and Africa. The draft policy and its treatment of small farmers will show whether India can deliver that.
Sources
- ICAR: https://icar.org.in/en/7th-agrivoltaics-world-conference-inaugurated-bharat-mandapam-new-delhi
- MNRE on X: https://x.com/mnreindia/status/2111091211281031605
- NewsBytes: https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/india/indias-union-minister-pralhad-joshi-announces-plan-for-agrivoltaic-policy/tldr
- Deccan Chronicle: https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/environment/new-policy-in-works-to-boost-agrivoltaics-in-india-1997612
- GKToday: https://www.gktoday.in/india-hosts-agrivoltaics-world-conference-2026/
- The Samikhsya: https://thesamikhsya.com/business/agrivoltaics-world-conference-2026-opens-turn-farmers-into-energy-producers
- Dainik Jagran English: https://english.dainikjagranmpcg.com/national/agrivoltaics-world-conference-2026-begins-in-delhi-solar-farming/article-39937
- Fraunhofer ISE, Heggelbach pilot: https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/press-media/press-releases/2017.html
- IISD, Agrivoltaics in India: https://stg.iisd.org/system/files/2023-05/agrivoltaics-in-india.pdf