Innovation Fund Grantees_Website Content

Nepal
Off Grid Bazaar – Scaling the deployment of solar irrigation systems using digital platform
and personalized agri-advisory for the farmers
Agriculture employs three-quarters of Nepal’s population and contributes one-third of the national GDP. However, of
the 2.7 million smallholder farmers in Nepal, less than 5% have access to on-demand irrigation, affordable financing
or awareness about commercial agriculture. Consequently, the majority of the farmers practice subsistence farming,
make less than $2 a day and live under poverty.
To address some of these challenges, Gham Power has developed an integrated solution called -Yield Improvement
in a Box-that provides farmers with reliable irrigation through solar water pumps, easy and affordable financing, and
knowledge of modern agricultural practices through personalized agri-advisory. In pilot studies, these interventions
have shown to increase the productivity and farming income by up-to 80% within three years.
https://www.offgridbazaar.com/
With the IWMI Innovation Fund Grant, Gham Power will further refine the technology and develop key partnerships
that will help scale the adoption and impact of solar irrigation solutions in Nepal and the border South Asian market.
Gham Power Nepal
Private Limited
Gham Power Nepal Pvt. Ltd. is
a renewable energy focused
social enterprise based in
Kathmandu, Nepal. Since its
establishment in 2010, they
have installed more than 2500
solar projects in both rural and
urban areas across the
country that cumulatively
generate 2.5MW of electricity.
https://ghampower.com/
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Anjal Niraula is the CEO at Gham Power and is a renewable energy expert trained at Jacobs University in Germany. He is a Chevening scholar from the
University of Edinburgh and also a member of the Future Energy Leader’s group with the World Energy Council where he works on the Energy Access
taskforce.
Bishwaraj Bhattarai is the Project Manager and has a Master’s degree in Sustainable Energy from the University of Edinburgh UK. He is a recipient of the
prestigious Chevening Scholarship from the UK Government, and has almost 5 years’ research and professional experience in the Renewable Energy sector.
He manages the entire Off Grid Bazaar project, including further development tasks under the SoLAR IF grant. Joshna Silwal is the Senior Administrative
Manager with over 4 years’ experience at Gham Power and she is responsible for overseeing the administrative, logistic, financial and operational aspects
of the project.
Kabita Poudel is the Lead Project Engineer with almost 3 years’ experience in engineering and is mostly engaged in designing on-grid and off-grid PV
systems along with solar water pumping systems. She deals with the technical parameters of the project and is responsible for the complete engineering
oversights in the project.
Kiran Timilsina is the Agri-analytics Officer at Gham Power and is a merit agriculture graduate from Agriculture and Forestry University Nepal with profound
experiences in innovative agriculture researches for improving livelihood of smallholder farmers. He guides the end-users of Gham Power to mitigate their
agriculture constraints for profitable farming and contributes in developing a robust platform for agricultural digitalization.
Wandana Shakya is the Marketing Executive and has a BBA degree in Marketing from Kathmandu University School of Management. She has experiences of
working with different organizations in the marketing field and is responsible for managing offline and online marketing activities in Gham Power to help
build branding and promotions.
Arya Manandar is the Communications Officer at Gham Power and assists the project implementation team in reporting and knowledge management,
donor and investor relationships, etc. She is responsible for coordinating with the in-house experts and external MEL consultants, and deals with reporting
aspects of the project.
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