Disaster response teams in Samburu have started using drones equipped with mapping sensors to spray desert locusts that are ravaging crops and pasturelands in the region.
Millions of the voracious insects have swept across East Africa in what the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has termed as the worst outbreak in a quarter of a century.
The second generation of the pests is threatening to increase food shortages in Samburu, a region where up to 130,000 people have been reeling from persistent droughts and floods for years.
Special Programmes Chief Officer Daniel Lesaigor noted that they had started using specially developed drones to kill the pests.
“The programme is cheaper. This is the first experience because nobody has ever done this with desert locusts before. The sprayers are effective because we spray the locusts upon sighting them,” said Mr Lesaigor. Read more…
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