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
On September 24th, Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah addressed the 81st United Nations General Assembly, placing the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli disaster at the centre of his appeal for climate justice. He called the floods a warning to the world and argued that countries like Nepal, which contribute little to global emissions, are paying a colossal price for […]
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 […]
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 […]
How Oorja’s Advisory Services Are Helping Farmers Grow More and Earn More
For smallholder farmers in rural Uttar Pradesh, every planting decision carries enormous weight. With limited land and resources, staying locked into traditional wheat-rice cycles has meant predictable but modest incomes with little room for growth. Oorja Development Solutions (Oorja) is breaking this cycle through an innovative combination of affordable solar-powered irrigation and comprehensive agronomy advisory […]
How Oorja is Reimagining Access to Solar-powered Irrigation
For a large percentage of Indians, nothing brings a glimmer of hope more than looming grey clouds. A normal and well-distributed monsoon is crucial for the 61 percent of Indian farmers who are dependent on rains for practising agriculture. Essentially, about 55 per cent of India’s net sown area (139.42 million ha) relies heavily on […]