It is barely past dawn when Nikhil Patel reaches his field. For years, watering his crops came with a familiar worry. Would there be electricity when he needed it? Would he have to depend on the diesel pump again?

This morning looks different.

Rows of solar panels stand along the edge of his land. The solar-powered pump begins drawing water towards his crops. There is another change too: his farm can now earn from the sun shining over it. 

And Nikhil is not alone.

Across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha, thousands of farmers are turning to solar power in similar ways.

Behind this effort is Bhavesh Patidar, who grew up in a farming family in Khalghat, Madhya Pradesh, and closely saw how difficult it could be for a farmer to earn a stable income.

He later studied at IIT and built a career in technology before founding Solarsure.

Since its launch in November 2024, the company says it has commissioned over 300 MW of solar capacity and reached more than 50,000 farmers through its projects.

‘I didn’t research the problem, I lived it’

Growing up in a farming family, Bhavesh witnessed the uncertainty that defined agricultural life. His father worked tirelessly on the farm for decades, yet financial security always seemed out of reach. But there was one thing he heard his father say again and again over the years. 

“Pura jeevan kheti mein laga diya, par kabhi achhi kamai nahi hui.”(I spent my entire life farming, but never earned a truly good income.)

The words lingered long after Bhavesh left home.

They stayed with him as he went on to study at IIT-BHU and build a career in technology. He founded the agritech startup Neurafarms, which was later acquired, and spent years working with data-driven systems and climate-tech. But even as his work took him in a different direction, the problem he had grown up seeing at home remained familiar.

“The problem was never something I discovered through........

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