‘To say’ Oh, there are locusts in northern Kenya ‘does not help anything,’ ‘he said. Cressman said. “We need longitude and latitude coordinates in real time.”
Instead of trying to rewrite the locust tracking software for newer tablets, Mr. Cressman thought it would be more efficient to create a simple smartphone app that anyone with expert data could collect. He reaches out to dr. Hughes, who has already created a similar mobile tool with the Food and Agriculture Organization to detect a devastating crop pest, the autumn worm, by PlantVillage, which he founded.
PlantVillage’s app uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to help farmers in 60 countries, mainly in Africa, diagnose problems in their countries. Hughes and his colleagues completed the new app, eLocust3m, in just one month, using this blueprint.
Unlike the previous tablet-based application, anyone can use eLocust3m with a smartphone. The app presents photos of locusts at different stages of their life cycles, helping users to diagnose what they see in the field. GPS coordinates are automatically recorded and algorithms check photos with each entry. Garmin International also helped with another program that worked on satellite transmitters.
“The app is very easy to use,” said Ms Jeptoo of PlantVillage. Last year, she recruited and trained locust trackers in four hard-hit Kenyan regions. “We had scouts who were 40 to 50 years old, and even they could use it.”
In the past year, more than 240,000 locust records have flowed in from East Africa, collected by PlantVillage scouts, government-trained personnel and citizens. But that was just the first step. Countries then had to act on the data in a systematic way to destroy locusts. In the first few months, however, officials were strategizing ‘at the back of envelopes’, Mr. Cressman said, and the entire region only had four planes to spray pesticides.
When Batian Craig, director of 51 Degrees, a security and logistics company that focuses on protecting wildlife, saw that Mr. Cressman is quoted in a news release about locusts, he realizes he can help.