Ninth Graders Predict Weather for Village, Help Farmers with Data

School children in the water-scarce village of Kothapally, India, help create weather forecasts for farmers using a data station brought in by scientists, to make growing crops more productive and sustainable.

The station – a device available in no other school in the Indian state of Telangana – is used by the students to record temperature, humidity, rain and wind speed, meant to aid their farmer families in predicting water availability based on the forecast.

The device was first brought in to the village by nonprofit International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics while carrying out a watershed management project. The Institute, who initially checked readings once a month, eventually moved the station inside the school and began training students on how to record the readings on their own.

Today, students inform their parents of the readings to base their farming according to the weather. They also post daily weather updates on a painted wall chart outside their school. Voggu Anjaiah, owner of six acres of farmland, praised the students’ efforts, saying, “This is very important. We check the rainfall here on our way to work.”

Over the years, the villagers have seen richer harvests due to the rainfall readings and the steady rise of groundwater level.