Matthew Sterne

Desert Locust Projects

As part of the 2019-2022 desert locust infestation of the Horn of Africa, we ran two very successful proof of concepts cantered around an alternative response approach that is environmentally sustainable and socially responsible:

Community Empowered Locust Upcycling Project (October 2020-May 2021)

Funded by DanChurch Aid

Inspired by work in Pakistan, our team rolled out manual harvesting by community members of and upcycling of desert locusts into animal feed and organic fertiliser in Northern Kenya. Through this project, it was proven that this can be a scaled response approach that directly benefits those in the path of desert locusts, while also allowing communities to contribute to the overall response.

Project Locust (July-December 2021)

Funded by CGAIR Inspire Prize and JDC Grid

In partnership with Tomorrow. Now, Digital Green and Kenarava, learnings from the “Community Empowered Locust Upcycling Project” were converted into local language videos for dissemination to communities that are in the forecast path of the desert locusts, providing them with a farmer-first response action that they can benefit from.