Solar irrigation as a climate adaptation tool, not just a cost-saving one
India is the largest user of groundwater, and solar irrigation is increasingly relevant to how the country manages agricultural water use. About 87% (Ministry of Jal Shakti) of the groundwater extracted here is used for agriculture. In India, agriculture is heavily reliant on irrigation from groundwater and monsoon rain. About 62% of the agricultural water […]
Falling mountains: Nepal’s Glacier Collapse and the Cost of Climate Injustice
Today, Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah addresses the United Nations General Assembly. He is expected to talk about climate justice, the Bhotekoshi floods and the concerns of mountain countries (Kathmandu Post), and to push for loss and damage compensation (UA.NEWS, citing the Kathmandu Post). He’ll be speaking to our governments. I’m writing to the rest […]
Women Leaders Shaping the Future of Agriculture
Agriculture is not merely an economic activity; it is the very foundation of human civilization. At its core lies a story, long under-acknowledged – the story of women. From the earliest days of food gathering and seed preservation to today’s complex agri-food systems, women have been central to sustaining farming, ensuring food security, and nurturing […]
Why yield alone is the wrong metric for food systems success
During one of my field visits, I happened to meet Anita, one of Oorja’s irrigation customers. I asked her what had changed after using Oorja’s solar pumps. She recalls one of the moments when she was standing in her paddy field on a humid afternoon in eastern Uttar Pradesh, running her fingers through a dense […]
The messy middle: what it takes to finance rural solar at scale
WRI India just published a working paper on financing distributed renewable energy (DRE) for livelihoods in India, and Oorja was one of the enterprises interviewed for it. Reading through the findings, I kept nodding along, because it puts language to a lot of what we live day to day. Here is the short version of […]
VOV EP 1: “Don’t start with the solution. Start with the problem you’re trying to solve.”
Voices of Value is Oorja’s interview series featuring leaders, practitioners, researchers, and innovators working across climate, agriculture, energy, finance, and development. Each conversation explores practical lessons from those creating impact on the ground. A Conversation with Lanvin Concessao, Program Lead, Energy for Equitable Development | WRI India One detail from our conversation with Lanvin has […]
When Data Meets the Field: How the Convergence of Agriculture and Energy Intelligence Is Reshaping Indian Farming
For most of India’s 140 million farming households, irrigation has historically come down to one of two choices: wait for the monsoon, or spend money they can barely afford on diesel. Neither is a solution. Both are symptoms of a deeper structural gap in a farming economy that has long operated without the information it […]
When Data Directs: How Third-Party Impact Measurement Shaped Oorja’s Decisions
At Oorja, data and feedback have never been an afterthought. It is a core part of the organisation’s culture and core values. From the outset, we built internal feedback loops; monthly data collection, seasonal surveys, service assessments, field-level monitoring into how we run the organisation and our services. So, when we participated in the 2023 […]
Why Climate-Resilient Agriculture Must Work for Women Farmers
Across rural India, countless women work alongside men in fields every day, often contributing equally and sometimes carrying the larger share of responsibility. They sow, harvest, and manage farms, especially during periods of male migration. The numbers tell an important story. According to the Agriculture Census 2015–16, women operate about 12% of the total agricultural […]
Why Women Farmers Face Higher Adoption Barriers: Insights from Rural Uttar Pradesh
Recently, we conducted a household survey in the Fatehpur blocks of Barabanki district in Uttar Pradesh. One of our goals was to understand how women felt about becoming water entrepreneurs. The responses we received revealed deep-seated barriers that prevent women from taking up the role, even when opportunities are available to them. When we approached […]