Flipping the script on rainfall data

In the last few hours before Covid-19 locked CGIAR centers staff into remote work, a handful of ICRISAT researchers traveled to Kenya’s Makueni County with a dozen seemingly innocuous devices, roughly packed inside plain A4 paper boxes. Virtually unnoticed, they were on a mission to plant what they hope will become a game changer in agricultural risk management: a set of unpretentious rain gauges.

Outwardly old-fashioned if not outright obsolete, these minimalistic receptacles the size of a large mug however hid a powerful stunt: Internet-Of-Things at a very affordable price. And this is significant.