Human-Enabled Microscopic Environmental Mobile Sensing and Feedback

Climate change has had a dramatic impact on many agrarian developing nations. For example, in 2009, the delay of the monsoon rains by a month in India affected several macroeconomic factors including food price increases, a stock market slump, agricultural product export restrictions, and an array of agricultural subsidies. Over the past decade, there has been a growing trend in the number of farmer suicide deaths throughout the country due to a combination of economic, social, and environmental factors. On one hand, the fraction of arable land has decreased over the years due to soil erosion factors, excessive use of pesticides, and land encroachment from urban dwellers (buying land in rural areas). On the other hand, agriculture as an occupation has become less profitable due to a combination of poor yield (due to poor water availability, monsoon unpredictability, and soil erosion) and an increase in the cost of living. Many of these factors hint at a pending agrarian catastrophe. From a technology perspective, what can we do to help agrarian communities in India and elsewhere? While we are not experts in economic and social factors, we do believe that technology can aid in addressing some of the environmental problems faced by such agrarian societies, even if it is in some limited manner that complements other efforts.