Thought Leadership & Public outreach
Open Rivers, and its founder Shefali, have invested in outreach and developing materials to share lessons learned, raise awareness of critical issues, provide thought leadership and elevate the voices and work of the many we have been fortunate to support and work alongside.
The Open Rivers blog and Open Rivers Navigator, our podcast, highlight our work and our community. Our plentiful resources provide an opportunity to get to know our perspectives and the content and expertise we bring to our work.
View some of our insights below.
At Open Rivers, we believe…
farmer profitability is a core part of farmer sustainability.
Healthy Soils, Profitable Farms: Rethinking Agricultural Sustainability
Open Rivers believes strongly that sustainability and profitability go hand-in-hand. For farmers, small businesses and entrepreneurs to thrive, they need a profitable pathway. Our founder, Shefali, discussed this value during her time with the Soil Health Partnership (SHP), one of the first broad-scale, farmer-led efforts to bring practical, science-based solutions to the field. She shares the importance of putting farmers at the center of innovation and building a more sustainable future from the soil up.
entrepreneurship drives transformational change that is aligned with people, profit, and planet.
PODCAST: Turning Ideas into Impact: Entrepreneurial Lessons from a Systems Strategist
Open Rivers supports businesses and nonprofits to develop impactful strategies through data-driven decision-making, innovation, and a holistic approach. This episode of the Wantrepreneurs podcast explores the role of resource allocation, prioritization, and adaptability can transform the way entrepreneurs approach problem-solving and success.
“We live in a world of limited resources. Success isn’t about having more—it’s about knowing how to allocate what you already have.”
– SHefali Mehta
Spotlighting Women in AgriFoodTech
Open Rivers values the role that many place in ag tech innovation from our farmers to researchers to entrepreneurs. We appreciated the chance to be included in From Farms to Incubators, a multimedia platform, amplifying stories of women leaders and entrepreneurs in AgriFoodTech. We value such collaborations that seek to surface innovative ideas, driving transformational change that is critical for solving our most urgent problems.
innovation is accelerated through trust, technology, and scalable solutions
Unlocking the Agricultural Data Revolution:
The agricultural data revolution starts with connection.
To truly unlock the power of agricultural data, we need more than just technology—we need trust, inclusivity, and coordination.
Video: Community Call to Action: What do we need to Unlock the Ag Data Revolution?
Building and maintaining trust between farmers and ranchers who generate the data, and the researchers and modelers who turn it into tools, are essential to advancing the role of data in revolutionizing agriculture. Alongside experts Ankita Raturi and Kevin Silverstein, Shefali examines why we must welcome new ideas and technologies from other industries, embrace diverse perspectives to leap ahead, and centralize knowledge in accessible, streamlined platforms that make it easier to find, share, and act on information. This webinar was part of Unlocking the Agricultural Data Revolution, a two-day virtual event hosted by FFAR, UMN, Purdue, CTIC, OpenTEAM and many contributors and collaborators.
Video: How industries outside of agriculture overcome data challenges
Some of our best innovation comes when we learn from other sectors, disciplines and backgrounds. In this discussion, the panelists bring knowledge from healthcare and elsewhere to discuss challenges around managing data and navigating data privacy and how we can learn from these to strengthen our data approaches in ag and food.
Video: AI, Climate, and Health: Centering Equity in Innovation
“Depending on how we design the AI, we can keep perpetuating the same biases...because the way that we pull in the data, the way that we treat the gaps, continues to come through these biased filters. How do you fundamentally change the beginning so that the outcomes start to actually look different than they've been for some time?"
In this roundtable hosted by the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute at Johns Hopkins University, in collaboration with Dasra’s ClimateRISE Alliance and Indiaspora, experts explored how AI can support climate and health interventions in India and beyond. In this excerpt, Shefali challenges the equity gaps in climate response and AI design—calling for a reimagining of power, data, and decision-making to drive just and lasting solutions.
Blog: Innovating from tHe Ground Up: Tech Solutions for Indian Agriculture
“Besides the companies developing products and solutions, we should also consider individual farmers as entrepreneurs. Individual farmers run their own businesses and are naturally innovating to address gaps...By co-creating with farmers and designing operationally feasible solutions, we could see the technological shifts needed in this space."
India houses one of the most diverse agricultural industries in the world and is well-positioned to rapidly uptake new technological innovations. However, these technologies must be fit-for-purpose, scalable, and cost-effective to suit India's unique landscape and agricultural barriers. Shefali outlines key areas where entrepreneurs could make a major difference: logistics and operations, tailored smallholder solutions, infrastructure and transportation, water resources, and diversified production.
"Leveraging India’s strengths in technology, entrepreneurial mindset, effective partnerships and long history of agricultural knowledge provides the answers to the onerous challenges of feeding the world, improving the livelihood of farmers and mitigating environmental and climatic issues."
organizational resilience & Change are built through people-centered solutions.
In partnership with the Orangutan Veterinary Advisory Group (OVAG) and Wildlife Health Australia (WHA), Open Rivers co-developed a groundbreaking model that integrates mental health, resilience, and leadership development into professional training for wildlife health professionals. These individuals work in high-stress, resource-limited conditions on the frontlines of conservation, facing challenges including systemic burnout.
Together, we designed and facilitated a series of in-person workshops and online webinars that wove mental health and decision-making under uncertainty into technical and leadership training. These experiential sessions, shaped by the lived experiences of OVAG and WHA members, turned “soft skills” into essential infrastructure for professional sustainability, enabling wildlife health professionals to translate data into action, navigate complexity, and lead with clarity and care.
Rooted in the One Health principle—that the wellbeing of animal care teams is inextricably linked to the health of the animals and ecosystems they serve—this work transforms stories of struggle into shared strategies for resilience. Our model demonstrates that when we invest in people, we strengthen the entire conservation system.
