EN 
PT_BR 
No longer depend on rain to grow food. This is the main objective of the public sector in the Federal District, which implemented an energy efficiency project to benefit farmers in the Paranoá region.
The initiative, carried out by Emater-DF (Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Company of the Federal District), in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, will benefit rural producers in the Estrela da Lua settlement with an irrigation system that uses solar energy.
Since January this year, the site began to receive the installation of a complex conduction system that, by capturing energy from the sun, takes water to tanks and tanks, making agricultural production viable.
According to the Department of Agriculture, this is the first photovoltaic project installed in a settlement in the DF. “The system is everything for us. Without water we cannot produce. I saw my entire plantation die at the end of the year due to running out of water. Without it we don’t live, we don’t work, we don’t produce”, said Marizângela de Fátima da Silva Reis, a farmer on plot 01 of the settlement.
“I cried watching my crops dry up, dying of thirst. Now it will be different and we will be able to increase our production”, he highlighted.
Seven plots of land, in addition to a community cultivation area, will benefit. Each property has 2.5 hectares (25 thousand m²) and the collective area has 5.73 hectares (57.3 thousand m²).
According to geographer Tupac Petrillo, who coordinates Emater-DF's photovoltaic program, in addition to resolving the community's irrigation issue, the system will alleviate the lack of energy in the settlement.
“For 2021, we have projects to install solar modules in Emater-DF offices and in schools in DF, which in addition to reducing energy bills and increasing the carbon footprint, is a sustainable action linked to the UN sustainable development goals . Furthermore, it will help each office and school to become photovoltaic demonstration units and training areas,” said Petrillo.
Denise Fonseca, president of Emater-DF, commented that the solar energy system will reduce the settlement's dependence on irrigation, improving the community's living conditions. “Without water there is no agriculture, there is no food on the table, there are no opportunities.”
The program carried out in the Estrela da Lua settlement was developed through a parliamentary amendment by district deputy Arlete Sampaio (PT). “This amendment turned the dream into reality”, highlighted farmer Claudionor Pereira, one of the settlement’s leaders.
