Climate Change Can Be So Much Fun: How Farmers Win Prizes by Guessing the Weather

A new challenge in Kenya will make climate change a little more fun to deal with: farmers will use their mobile phones to predict when the rainy season will start – and winners will take home prizes!

The “Let it rain” challenge, created by The Mediae Company, will give all participating farmers free access to a farmers’ information service called iShamba, which offers advice on everything from pests to plants, in an aim to avoid damaging crops as climates change.

“One of the key issues is that they never know when the rains are coming and, as a result, they will plant too early or harvest too late,” says project coordinator Sophie Rottmann. “So we came up with the idea of gamifying the issue to engage farmers in the conversation, and give them access to information through the iShamba service.”

The “game” will take off on February 1^st, 2019, and farmers who predict correctly will win up to $1,000.