What is the name of your organization?
Oorja Development Solutions India Private Limited
What is the name of your solution?
Oorja’s Climate-Smart Farming Services for Smallholders
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Oorja delivers solar-powered irrigation as an affordable service through Pay Per Use model, removing upfront costs and enabling smallholder farmers to shift from diesel dependence to reliable, clean energy.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
New Delhi
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
—
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-Profit
Film your elevator pitch.
—
What specific problem are you solving?
Around 30 million Indian smallholder farmers rely on 9 million diesel-powered pumps for irrigation. These pumps are expensive, unreliable in summer, and account for nearly 10% of national emissions. High fuel costs (20–40% of inputs) and poor irrigation reduce crop yields by up to 50%, perpetuating low incomes and vulnerability.
What is your solution?
Oorja is a Farming-as-a-Service (FaaS) enterprise that enables smallholder farmers to access affordable, reliable, and sustainable irrigation without upfront investment. Through its model, Oorja installs, owns, and operates solar-powered pumps directly on farms and delivers water on a Pay-Per-Use (PPU) basis. Farmers pay only for the volume of water used, measured via flowmeters, at fixed tariffs of INR 3–4 per m³, typically 20–60% cheaper than diesel-based irrigation. By retaining asset ownership and responsibility for maintenance, Oorja removes technical and financial risks for farmers while ensuring high system uptime and performance.
In addition, Oorja provides Climate-Smart Advisory services to irrigation customers. Trained agronomists support farmers with soil testing, access to climate-resilient seeds, sustainable input practices, crop planning, and on-farm demonstrations. This integrated approach increases cropping intensity, improves yields, reduces chemical input use, and strengthens climate resilience, enabling farmers to transition from costly fossil fuels to clean, productive energy.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Oorja serves low-income smallholders in weak-grid region of India. These farmers typically cultivate less than 2 acres of fragmented land and earn $60–100 per household per month, with agriculture contributing about half of their income. Most grow staple crops across one or two seasons and rely on costly diesel-powered irrigation due to unreliable grid electricity. High fuel costs, and limited exposure to scientific agronomy keep yields low and incomes unstable.
Oorja improves their livelihoods by replacing diesel with affordable Pay-Per-Use solar irrigation that requires no upfront investment. Farmers reduce irrigation costs by up to 60%, gain reliable year-round water access, and can cultivate an additional “zaid” season or diversify into higher-value crops. Through climate-smart advisory services, farmers adopt improved practices such as SRI/SWI, precise input use, natural alternatives to chemicals, and climate-resilient seed selection, leading to higher yields, lower costs, improved soil health, reduced emissions, and more stable household incomes.
