• Productive Power for Smallholder Farmers

    • Oorja shortlisted for the 2022 Energising Agriculture Ashden Award

      This award recognises our innovation bridging the gap between the agriculture and energy access sectors.

       

      To can see the full shortlist, visit:

      Oorja kickstarts CatalyzeTech project in partnership with Selco Foundation

      In this project, training modules will be developed to mobilise and train 500 small and marginal farmers to grow high-value crops and increase their agricultural income. Simultaneously, 50 women farmers or "Krishi Sakhis" will be empowered to assist in daily operation and maintenance of agricultural technologies.

      Oorja among UN Best Small Business winners

      Selected from nearly 2,000 applications from 135 countries, the 50 winners all showcase inspiring, diverse, and impactful solutions in improving access to healthy, sustainable food. They will also share US$100,000 in cash prizes. Read more about the hidden heroes of our food systems here.

      Water and Energy for Food (WE4F) Grand Challenge Awardees Announced

      Oorja was selected among the 15 winners of the WE4F South and Southeast Asia Grant Challenge. WE4F supports innovations in water, energy and food and will invest $180,000 in expanding Oorja's Agri-Energy services across northern India in 2021-22. WE4F is an international partnership supported by USAID, the European Union, and international development agencies of Germany, Sweden and The Netherlands.

      Cisco's new video highlights the benefit of our "Oonnati" irrigation service for smallholder farmers.

       

    • About us

      We are a Farming as a service (FaaS) company working at the intersection between agriculture and clean energy. We provide irrigation, milling and cooling services to smallholder farmers on a pay-per-use basis.

      We finance and install decentralised solar energy systems at the farm level. There is no upfront cost charged to end-users.
       

      We operate and maintain these solar systems for their full lifetime. 

       

      We sell reliable and affordable farming services powered by solar energy to farmers. Our business model is pay-per-use. This means users pay according to the amount of irrigation water pumped, produce milled or stored. 

    • Our farming services

      💦 Irrigation as a service. 

      Available on-farm on a per-litre basis.

      ❄️ Cooling as a service. 

      Available at the farm or market gate on a per-crate-per-day basis.

      ⚡ Agroprocessing as a service.

      Available on-farm at a per-kg rate.

    • How we work

      Finance

      We raise finance for the company to invest in community-scale agri infrastructure. This is typically blended capital.

      Site identification

      We identify or receive referrals for potential project sites where smallholder farmers rely on diesel power for their energy needs.

      Demand assessment

      Our ground team conducts farmer consultation to assess demand for our services. We form groups of interested farmers and may collect membership fees from them.

      Installation

      We procure equipment from reputed domestic suppliers and complete civil works, installation testing and commissioning of solar systems.

      Service delivery

      We hire an Operator from the local community and train them to deliver irrigation, milling or cooling services and maintain a sales register.

      Paying-per-use

      Customers pay the Operator based on their consumption at affordable tariffs. For example, irrigation is paid per litre based on a flowmeter.

      Ops and maintenance

      Our ground team conducts regular maintenance and repairs, ensuring services are hassle-free and keeping our customers happy.

      Monitoring

      We monitor project performance and collect annual impact data. This helps us to assess the economic, social and environmental benefits.

    • Impact

      We are aligned to 5 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

      Access to affordable, reliable energy is fundamental to economic activity and poverty alleviation. It enables people to use appliances and machines that help them to seek better livelihoods, increase their food security, access quality education, breathe cleaner air and live in a cleaner environment, and lead lives of greater dignity and less hard labour. Oorja's services are designed to transform the lives of low-income communities, notably small and marginal farmers, low-income households and women farmers, by significantly increasing income when linked to productive activities at their farm. Displacing diesel - a fossil fuel - in favour of solar energy also delivers significant carbon emissions savings.

    • 247

      PV capacity (kWp)

      10,212

      lives impacted

      20

      jobs created in

      last-mile rural communities

      29%

      increase in users'

      agricultural income in 1 year

      656

      tonnes CO2eq saved

    • Award-winning innovation

    • Featured in

      In April 2016 we were awarded Social Innovation of the Year by MIT Technology Review and recognized as one of 10 Innovators Under 35 France.

    • Investors

    • Ecosystem Partners

      a growing roster of renowned practitioners and ecosystem enablers in the off-grid clean energy space in India to influence critical issues related to policy, financing, training and technology.

       

       

      We’re happy to announce Oorja is the official Indian partner of Charge, the world’s first Energy Branding Conference.

    • Get in touch

    Copyright © Oorja Development Solutions Limited 2022

    Images © Oorja Development Solutions India and © Adam Barr. 

    Icons made by prettycons, Freepik, Kiranshastry, Surang and srip from Flaticon licensed by a Creative Commons BY 3.0 license.

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