NEW DELHI: An Indian organization that won this year’s Prince Talal International Prize for Human Development says the Saudi award will help it expand its solar installations for smallholder farmers while raising its global profile to attract partners, investors and donors.
The Prince Talal Prize, named after Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, the founder of the Arab Gulf Programme for Development, is awarded annually to global, national and individual initiatives encouraging innovation and creativity in human development.
Four projects were chosen this year for the prize under the theme “Affordable and Clean Energy.” The biggest, first category award, for initiatives implemented by UN agencies or international NGOs, went to UNICEF.
The fourth category prize of $100,000 for projects initiated by individuals went to Oorja Development Solutions India for providing solar-powered agricultural services to smallholder farmers.
Instead of selling solar-powered water pumps, the organization finances, installs, owns, and maintains the systems, while farmers pay only for the irrigation or energy services they use. The setup helps lower the upfront cost barrier and encourages them to adopt clean, solar energy instead of using popular diesel.
“With that money, we’ll be able to form new clusters, so deploy about 40, 50 new solar pumps, irrigation pumps that will serve the needs of 1,000 to 1,500 new farmers,” Amit Saraogi, CEO and co-founder of Oorja Solutions, told Arab News.
“This will allow these farmers to receive reliable, affordable, sustainable access to irrigation throughout the year. Some of these farmers who only do two seasons will now be able to do three-season cultivation. And, therefore, there will be a visible increase in their income that they can then spend on their better health and better education for their family and themselves.”
Oorja Solutions is a social enterprise co-founded in 2016 by Saraogi, an international development expert, and Clementine Chambon, a renewable energy scholar. Winning the Prince Talal Prize means for them not only the money — which Oorja Solutions plans to immediately use to expand its project — but also global recognition and visibility.
“It’s an endorsement of our model, our solution, our innovation that is making a difference in the lives of smallholder farmers here in India,” Saraogi said.
“We’ll be able to attract new partners, new stakeholders, new investors and donors so that we can continue scaling our work and reach many more millions of farmers.”
Oorja Solutions has so far installed 380 solar-powered pump systems across six districts of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The services currently have about 6,000 direct subscribers. As they have an impact also on their families, the organization estimates that it is already benefiting about 70,000 people.
“We’ll continue to grow, we’ll continue to expand geographically, as well to other districts of UP, but also other states of India,” Saraogi said. “By 2035, our aim, and our mission, is to reach 1 million farmers.”