As we move deeper into 2025, Oorja reflects on a transformative year full of milestones and invaluable learnings. This year, we focused on expanding our clean energy solutions, refining our service offerings, and empowering smallholder farmers with the tools they need to thrive. Here’s a glimpse into some of the lessons that shaped our journey.
In 2024, we continued to refine our Pay-Per-Use model, which proved highly effective for solar irrigation and milling. Smallholder farmers in our pilot areas showed higher adoption rates, leading to improved productivity and income. This model helped address affordability, empowering more farmers to access renewable energy solutions.
Our tariff reduction experiments in Bahraich, Barabanki, and Hardoi further validated this approach. Partnering with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), we reduced solar irrigation tariffs in five villages, resulting in a 111% increase in utilization and a 6.3% sales boost. These results illustrate the importance of flexibility in pricing to drive both affordability and usage.
In 2024, Oorja expanded its clean energy solutions by launching two new business lines: Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) and Fixed Monthly Installment (FMI) solutions. The EPC vertical focuses on deploying solar irrigation pumps and rooftop solar systems, empowering smallholder farmers and residential customers with reliable, renewable energy. Meanwhile, the FMI initiative is designed to accelerate access to clean energy powered solar pumps by offering modular and scalable solutions tailored to the unique needs of individual farmers and businesses, enabling them to decarbonize their value chains. These strategic expansions underline Oorja’s commitment to driving energy equity and sustainability.
The Dhoop app is being developed to provide farmers with a convenient and reliable way to book irrigation service slots, ensuring fair and equal access for all. This feature will enhance transparency, making the irrigation process more dependable and trustworthy for our farming community. In addition, we are designing a comprehensive Farmer Advisory service bundle to address the diverse needs of farmers. This package will offer affordable access to key agricultural inputs such as high-quality seeds, soil health testing, and advisory services on crop management and weather patterns. Ultimately, Oorja aims to make the Dhoop app a one-stop digital platform where farmers can access all their farming requirements in real time — helping them improve productivity while maintaining cost-effectiveness.
A major success this year was our series of climate-resilient seed advisory workshops, where farmers received tailored advice on improving crop yields despite unpredictable weather patterns. These workshops have been well-received, with over 2,200 farmers trained across 50+ villages. The interactive tools used in these sessions have made them engaging and educational, providing actionable solutions for farmers.
As we look ahead, scaling these workshops and integrating mobile-based advisory services is in progress to ensure even greater reach.
Creating a strong feedback loop has been critical to our success. Through WhatsApp groups and in-person check-ins, we’ve gathered real-time insights from farmers, helping us improve our solar solutions and advisory services.
Our next step is to enhance this feedback mechanism to include more voices from women farmers, ensuring inclusivity and equitable access to resources.
2024 also saw operational improvements that boosted efficiency. We streamlined logistics by partnering with local networks, cutting deployment time by 30%, and hired a dedicated lead generator in our sales team. These actions accelerated project deployments and expanded our pipeline of potential sites.
In 2025, we plan to roll out digital tools for tracking installations and service requests, enhancing both efficiency and transparency in our processes.
As we move forward into 2025, we are excited to build on these lessons, refine our solutions, and continue our mission to drive energy equity and sustainability for rural communities. Each challenge presents an opportunity, and with the dedication of our team and the support of our partners, we are confident in the path ahead.
Photo credit: Sharon Avraham
