In this report, we look at the emerging opportunity to use mobile operator data and assets to strengthen the climate resilience of smallholder farmers in developing countries. By using their assets, mobile operators can play a key role in improving a variety of services for rural communities, from weather and crop insurance to protect farmers against agricultural losses, to accurate weather forecasts and agro-climatic advisory to help farmers adapt to changing weather patterns and extreme weather events.

This report focuses, in particular, on the growing opportunity to use mobile network data from Commercial Microwave Links (CMLs) for rainfall monitoring, as well as connecting weather sensors via IoT and leveraging mobile user location for hyper-local services. We identify opportunities for mobile operators to generate value from their data and assets by collaborating with different organisations, from national meteorological agencies to weather companies and insurers.