Awards

Ani Varghese of ZeroEarth Private Limited in India will pilot test a climate-smart dairy farming platform supporting rural women farmers in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Through partnerships with financial institutions, they will set up mechanisms facilitating farmers' access to credit to sustainably increase their farming income. They will launch a pilot business center, which will provide training in entrepreneurship and climate-smart farming practices; centralized access to veterinary services; and coordination between dairy, calf-rearing, and fodder farmers. Farming practices supported by the center will include those to improve the health of soil for growing fodder; to optimize feed to minimize greenhouse gas emissions and enhance milk quality; and to efficiently manage manure, with the launch of a biogas plant to generate electricity.

Satadal Saha of the Foundation for Innovations in Health in India will develop an AI-based platform to support public health interventions for women living in the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, focusing on anemia, urogenital tract infections, and anxiety and depression. The Reserve is a river delta region highly susceptible to climate change-driven severe weather. The project will build on the team's existing digital platform for health data that supports community health workers deliver primary care to island communities. They will collect environmental data, including data for weather and air and water quality, and expand the platform with software enabling regular monitoring and integrated analysis of health and environmental data. This includes incorporating an AI-based predictive model to guide the proactive design and implementation of public health interventions for vulnerable women in this region.

Raghuram Dharmaraju of the I-Hub for Robotics and Autonomous Systems Innovation Foundation in India will improve heatwave forecasting using AI approaches and develop an early warning system for the Indian state of Karnataka to enhance preparedness for heat-induced health risks. The improvements in forecasting will encompass increases in accuracy, lead time, and spatial resolution. The early warning system will use web-based dashboards, mobile apps, and social media platforms to communicate heatwave alerts in local languages. It will include messages tailored to particularly vulnerable groups as well as alerts to healthcare providers to actively monitor these groups. It will also send notifications to relevant government agencies about the potential severity of health impacts. This system will guide public health interventions while helping establish data collection mechanisms for ongoing improvement of the system.

Tavpritesh Sethi of Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi in India will develop an AI-based platform to support responses to vector-borne diseases in the face of climate change in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. They will establish a comprehensive database that integrates climate data with data from existing programs for the control of vector-borne diseases (malaria, dengue, chikungunya, Zika, and Japanese encephalitis). Data will be at the block level of local government in Uttar Pradesh and will include real-time data. For analysis, they will develop an AI-based platform, named Sanketak, that includes modules to capture data, provide automated alerts, visualize changes in disease incidence, and identify early warning signs that predict disease hotspots. They will pilot test the platform, evaluating its potential to preempt, detect, and manage vector-borne disease outbreaks in a timely and effective manner.

Chiranjay Mukhopadhyay of the Manipal Institute of Virology in India will perform a two-year longitudinal study in the Western Ghats region of India, focusing on sentinel surveillance of tick-borne pathogens and their transmission dynamics. This mountain range region is known for its high biological diversity, and they will sample across 12 sites representing diverse ecological habitats where people and wild and domestic animals interact most frequently. They will collect host-seeking ixodid ticks, screen them for eight tick-borne pathogen groups, and perform whole-genome sequencing for the pathogens identified. Corresponding weather data will be collected from the Indian Meteorological Department. They will combine this longitudinal data to develop statistical models that predict the spatial and temporal transmission of tick-borne pathogens and the corresponding disease risk, which will guide public health interventions.

Karthik Sasihithlu of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in India will map urban heat islands across India and test radiative cooling paint on building rooftops to reduce temperatures, heat-related illnesses, and energy consumption for cooling. Urban centers in India face extreme summer temperatures, worsened by the heat island effect in developed areas relative to rural areas and by heatwaves increasing in frequency because of climate change. Radiant cooling paint, because it does not require structurally modifying buildings, could be an affordable and sustainable intervention to reduce the negative health and economic impacts of heat. Heat islands will be mapped using satellite imagery, and radiative cooling paint will be tested in the severe heat islands identified.

Arup Ghosh of CSIR-Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute in India will design a feed additive for Indian cattle that combines algae and bacteria to reduce enteric methane emission, improve livestock health, and enhance agricultural productivity. From Indian sources, they will select seaweed, marine microalgae, and bacteria, screening them for their ability to inhibit methanogenesis in vitro and in the rumen of cattle. They will also assess their effect on the rumen microbiota and on cattle physiology and productivity. Candidate products made from these additives will be evaluated for their economic viability, including their potential for large-scale cost-effective production, storage, and distribution, as well as for their benefits to farmers relative to existing solutions.

Ananda Kumar Mishra of Cowbit Technologies Pvt Ltd in India will pilot test the Cowbit, a wearable device for real-time monitoring of dairy cow health. They will test the device across farms in different states in India, along with a mobile app in local languages for user-friendly readout of the data. The device's sensors will measure elements of cow health particularly relevant for guiding farm management. This includes measurements such as udder temperature for early diagnosis of mastitis and prompt veterinary treatment. It also includes behavioral measurements to identify cows without typical signs of estrus (silent heat) who are ready for insemination to maximize breeding efficiency. They will collaborate with farmers and other stakeholders to ensure the device is relevant for increasing farm productivity and has potential for broad uptake.

Kavitha Sairam of FIB-SOL Life Technologies Private Limited in India will develop mulch sheets that are biodegradable and can be tilled into the soil or composted. Mulch sheets can improve crop yields while reducing the need for irrigation and addition of agricultural chemicals. Traditional polyethylene mulch sheets, however, need to be removed each crop cycle, which is labor intensive, and they are a source of plastic pollution. To develop a biodegradable mulch product, they will explore various materials and fabrication technologies. They will characterize the physical and chemical properties of the candidate product and pilot test its performance and rate of degradation in the field with two different crops as compared to a commercial polyethylene sheet.

Anandkumar Naorem of the ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur in India will perform polyhouse farming experiments in the Indian state of Rajasthan to identify soil conditions that reduce emission of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. Polyhouses are greenhouse-style but enclosed in polyethylene rather than glass. They will grow tomato plants as a vegetable test crop, adjusting soil properties by varying factors including the type of mulch, irrigation frequency, the type of nitrogen compound added, and whether biochar is added. They will assess soil health through analysis of its physical, chemical, and biological properties, focusing on how they relate to nitrous oxide emission. The results will guide improvements in polyhouse farming particularly relevant as a sustainable agricultural strategy for arid regions.