When Nirmala Mahanto first started farming on her in-laws' land in Keonjhar, India, she was taken aback by the back-breaking challenge of crop production. In this drought prone district of eastern India, water scarcity forces women like Nirmala to walk miles, lugging water to irrigate their lands. Agricultural cultivation in Keonjhar is mainly rainfed and as the water tables run low, any changes in rainfall have a bearing on food production.