Exploring whether drones could be used as a nimble, low-cost, and environmentally friendlier complement to traditional locust control.
Between 2019 and 2021, East Africa experienced the worst locust crisis in decades, a threat that is likely to intensify as climate change drives more frequent and extreme weather fluctuations. Locusts devastated crops and pastureland across Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia. But existing responses, such as hand-held, vehicle-mounted, or aircraft spraying of pesticides, face real challenges in cost, reach, and environmental risk.
This pilot explored whether drones could be used as a nimble, low-cost, and environmentally friendlier complement to traditional locust control, particularly for early-stage outbreaks, hard-to-reach areas, and smaller swarms.
"The drones can reach areas the existing methods cannot. It fills the gap in low cost control because when you have an inaccessible area where the aircraft, the vehicles and handheld sprayers cannot reach, you can use a drone."
Through the Frontier Tech Hub, Brink supported FCDO pioneer Tristan Eagling, local drone operator Astral Aerial, and scientific partner CABI to develop and test a drone-based locust control method in real field conditions.
Brink’s role focused on coaching across the full experimentation journey, supporting the team to iterate technical designs, engage communities and ecosystem stakeholders, document evidence, and develop system-level insights on the potential for scale and integration into formal response systems.
Our work included:
This pilot showed that drones can play a niche but valuable role in locust control: responding quickly to small or early-stage outbreaks, operating safely in populated or inaccessible areas, and reducing environmental risk through more targeted spraying. While uptake will likely depend on future funding, especially between swarming cycles, this work laid the foundations for future integration into national and international locust response systems.
