Impact Lab
Rural Action Lab’s Impact Lab drives community-led development by designing and implementing field-based interventions that strengthen rural livelihoods and climate resilience. Our work combines grassroots engagement, behavioural change strategies, and local capacity-building to ensure long-term ownership and sustainability. Through field-based innovation, partnership building, and iterative learning, the Impact Lab supports farmers, rural entrepreneurs, and community institutions to adopt practices that enhance incomes, promote ecological stewardship, and foster inclusive rural growth.
Climate-smart agriculture project
Our Climate-Smart Agriculture initiative empowers farming communities across Uttar Pradesh and Punjab to adopt sustainable, low-cost, and climate-resilient practices. By combining on-ground demonstrations with farmer-led learning, the project bridges the gap between traditional knowledge and modern agricultural innovation. Through 30+ demonstration plots and 50+ village-level trainings, we promote practices such as integrated nutrient management, crop residue recycling, Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) in paddy, and the use of biofertilizers and organic compost. Rural Action Lab scaled Alternate Wetting and Drying across more than 3,000 acres of paddy cultivation. The practice replaces continuous flooding with controlled irrigation cycles, helping farmers reduce water use by approximately 20–25% while maintaining crop productivity. By lowering irrigation requirements and methane emissions, the initiative supports both groundwater conservation and more climate-resilient paddy cultivation
Project SAAth
Project Saath is a community-driven initiative aimed at tackling Punjab’s annual stubble burning crisis, which sees nearly 20 million tons of crop residue burned each year, causing severe air pollution, soil degradation, and health risks across Northern India. Implemented across 10 villages in Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala districts, the project has engaged over 1,000 farmers through 50+ training camps and 5 demonstration plots showcasing no-burn sowing, water conservation, and regenerative practices. It has also facilitated access to Crop Residue Management (CRM) machinery through community-based rental models, benefiting 20 service providers and promoting 100+ no burn adoptions. By combining collective action, agroecological techniques, and women’s leadership in farming, Project Saath is fostering resilient, low-emission, and sustainable agricultural systems that improve livelihoods while contributing to cleaner air and healthier ecosystems in Punjab
THE MANGO PROJECT
Fruit and vegetable farmers are among the worst affected by supply chain disruptions. Through The Mango Project, we aim to support mango farmers in Western Uttar Pradesh by directly connecting them with consumers in the Delhi–NCR region and facilitating the logistics required for door-to-door delivery of farm-fresh produce. This reduces post-harvest losses, improves price realisation, and lowers dependency on middlemen.
Punjab Flood Relief
When floods affected communities across Patiala and Ludhiana, Rural Action Lab coordinated relief support for more than 500 families. The response included essential supplies and assistance for farming households whose crops, fields and livestock resources had been damaged. Silage and fodder were distributed to help farmers protect animal health, sustain milk production and reduce the financial burden caused by the loss of feed during the floods.
