Productive Power for Smallholder Farmers

New World Bank report features Oorja among leading pay-per-use service companies

This report aims to survey the outlook for the off-grid solar market and interventions needed for the sector to achieve its full potential impact.

Oorja has won the
MANAGE Samunnati
National Agri Start-Up Award

watch the awards ceremony

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:

Ashden shortlist

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.

find out more

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

watch it here

About us

Oorja is a Farming as a Service 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.

Hit play to see what we do below! ▶️

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.

oonnati video

❄️ Cooling as a service.

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

Oonnayan Video

⚡ Agroprocessing as a service.

Available on-farm at a per-kg rate.

oojjwal video

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.

322

PV capacity (kW_p)

12,750

direct and indirect users

30+

jobs created in

last-mile rural communities

57%

increase in users'

agricultural income in 1 year

880

tonnes CO_2eq saved