Sustainable Green Initiatives Forum: Empowering local women in India to serve their community with innovative irrigation systems

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Sustainable Green Initiatives Forum: Empowering local women in India to serve their community with innovative irrigation systems

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SGIF uses a gender-focused implementation process by which women farmers train other farmers to solve their food scarcity issues caused by drought, flood, water logging, and soil problems.

The Problem

In India, more than 6.72 million hectares of land is affected by seasonal water logging and dissolved salts in the water, threatening the food security of the millions of small farmers. In addition, recurring droughts and floods further heighten their food insecurity. Nearly 94% of women are involved in the agricultural activities and nearly 60% of these small farms are managed solely by women, while the men of the household trek into town for work that provides a daily income.

The Solution

Sustainable Green Initiatives Forum (SGIF) has invented a new technology, Bhungroo, which can filter, inject, and store stormwater for later usage. With this technology, SGIF has established a Women Climate Leaders group to train local women so that they can champion the diffusion of the technology throughout the local communities for a salary. By empowering local women, SGIF is "killing two birds with one stone." SGIF is changing the local cultural narrative about women entrepreneurship while simultaneously addressing the food security issue engendered by the contaminated storm water.