From reaching over 120 on-farm solar projects impacting nearly 30,000 beneficiaries to expanding our team to 72 passionate changemakers, 2023 was a year of incredible progress. We secured $1 million in impact funding and welcomed mission-aligned investors to our board. We won the prestigious 60 Decibels Off-Grid Energy Top Impact Award and the Startup Energy Transition Award for Quality Energy Access and SDG-7. We presented our pioneering and inclusive Farming-as-a-Service model at COP28 in Dubai.

WE4F's 2023 Annual Report has highlighted Oorja's gender mainstreaming and digitisation efforts. Our innovative use of digital technologies, including smart metres, digital payment systems, digital flowmeters, and remote monitoring features, has revolutionised pay-per-use solar irrigation operations. WE4F supported us in developing and implementing our Gender Mainstreaming plan in 2022. Since then, we have tripled the proportion of women customers from 5% to 15%.

The report highlights Oorja's innovative Pay-Per-Use business model, which bridges the energy access gap by making solar-powered irrigation affordable for smallholder farmers. Farmers can now access timely irrigation without the expense and labor of diesel pumps. Our model turns solar pumps into a service, providing year-round irrigation and additional services like solar milling to maximise the utilisation of the energy generated from our solar installations.

Over the past four years, 60 Decibels interviewed 79,000+ customers of 160+ energy organisations from 30+ countries to hear their experiences with energy access. They also surveyed Oorja's irrigation customers in Uttar Pradesh, India. This report provides a deep, bottom-up analysis of data to share key insights about what it means to own a modern off-grid energy product: the impact on access, behaviours, and quality of life.

Locally-owned Oorja Solutions has used human-centred design to put the customer – at the centre of every stage of the development of their services. The community is involved in identifying the problems they face, developing solutions, and customising them based on different needs. They hire their customer-facing teams directly from the communities they work in.

In this Good Practice Note, published by Agricultural Extension in South Asia (AESA) Argha Ghose and Ankur Singh discuss Oorja's evolution and how it has created significant social, economic and environmental impact by strengthening farmers’ livelihoods, reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainable agriculture.

BASE Foundation has launched a training manual for cold storage operators. Co-authored by Oorja along with Koel Fresh, CoolCrop and ColdHubs, the manual is a comprehensive and accessible guide that consolidates essential information for maintaining top-quality food standards.

60 Decibels conducted an external impact assessment to assess the satisfaction level of 277 Oonnati irrigation customers across 7 districts of Uttar Pradesh, India. The report covers various parameters to including usage, experience, consumer protection and impact.

60 Decibels conducted an external impact assessment to assess the satisfaction level of our Oonnati pump operators based in 7 districts of Uttar Pradesh, India. They conducted telephonic interviews with 28 such jobholders - 48 percent of whom have been working with Oorja for more than a year. The report covers various parameters to measure the impact of Oorja in their personal and professional lives.

Food waste has been a major issue in India due to the lack of cold storage facilities. As of 2022, an estimated 40% of the food produced in the country was wasted. This report studies the gap in the cold storage infrastructure and emerging solutions to address the issue. The report acknowledges the role of Oorja's Cooling-as-a-Service model in the strengthening the food systems through its cold storage infrastructure.

Ren 21 has acknowledged Oorja's CEO and Co-founder Amit Saraogi for his contrbutions to the Renewables 2023 Global Status Report: Economic and Social Value Creation. The report explores the wide range of benefitsthat renewable energy can offer beyond the supply of energy. From the job creation opportunities that breathe life into local economies, to building up local supply chains that foster a participatory society, the evidence in the report illustrates how energy, economic growth and social progress are not competing forces.

Ren 21 has acknowledged Oorja's CEO and Co-founder Amit Saraogi for his contrbutions to the Renewables 2023 Global Status Report: Energy Supply. The report delves into the intricacies of renewable energyprogress, examining the distribution of energy among carriers and addressing critical obstacles.

There is a rapid evolution of agtech startups involved in irrigation in India. We highlightkey emerging trends for these startups: transitions from hardware sales to software
sales and services; bundling with other agricultural products and vertical integration;
and varied partnerships to reduce customer acquisition costs. With increased global
focus on the use of data to add value for irrigating farmers, we expect domestic and
international growth opportunities for Indian startups that can leverage partnerships
to scale quickly.

Nearly half of India’s agriculture is irrigated, making it an ideal testbed for irrigated agtechbusiness models. We see an increasing number of entrepreneurial ventures seeking to make an impact in the agricultural water sector to support smallholders. However, little information exists about the irrigation business ecosystem, limiting the ability of entrepreneurs and other stakeholders to understand challenges and take full advantage of opportunities. In order to address this, we identified and mapped startups and other stakeholders within the ecosystem.

With ever-changing global climatic conditions and growing demand for sustainable food production, cold chain technologies are critical for improving food security, reducing food waste, enhancing farmers' livelihoods, and supporting adaptation to climate change. These technologies enable the safe and efficient transport, storage, and distribution of perishable goods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy, fish, and meat. The report offers insights into current cold chain infrastructure, existing business models, market gaps, and potential interventions that can help meet the cooling needs of first-mile farmers and vendors across four value chains: Fresh Fruits & Vegetables (FFV), Meat, Dairy, and Fish Value Chains by 2030.

This report explores the immediate impact of the CatalyzeTech project supported by the SELCO Foundation and implemented by Oorja Development Solutions India Private Limited. The project, which was implemented in the Spring of 2022, aimed to train 500 smallholder and marginalised farmers in modern and sustainable agronomic practices to increase their agricultural productivity and subsequently income.