Background

Across underserved and peri-urban regions surrounding big metropolitan cities like Mumbai, the issue of water stress has become a rather pressing challenge; especially for the smaller, marginal farmers. Factors like erratic rainfall, declining groundwater levels and an overall rise in the dependence on water-intensive irrigation methods have made agricultural livelihoods more vulnerable than ever. According to the Central Ground Water Board, large parts of Maharashtra fall under “over-exploited” or “critical” groundwater zones, placing sustained pressure on both crops and communities.

While in the present, tech-savvy world, various irrigation technologies exist, access still remains uneven. Many low-income farming households continue to rely on inefficient flood irrigation practices due to a lack of awareness, training, or affordability capacities when it comes to choosing alternatives. A report by NITI Aayog  highlighted that inefficient water use in agriculture particularly accounts for a significant amount of freshwater wastage in India, despite the sector supporting nearly half of the country’s workforce. 

Rooted Resilience emerged as a humble initiative to tackle this very issue; from recognizing that addressing water stress does not always require high-cost infrastructure, but can be equally impactful with context-specific and science-backed solutions that Indian farmers can realistically adopt. The project has been conceptualized, in an attempt to bridge the gap between environmental research and actual, on-ground agricultural practices via translating affordable irrigation and soil moisture techniques into tools that are accessible, practical and locally relevant.