Kuzi is an AI-powered, anti-locust tool from Selina Wamucii, a platform for African food & agricultural produce.

In 2020, an invasion of desert locusts ravaged crops and worsened an already critical food shortage in Africa. Hundreds of millions of these rapacious insects attacked food crops across Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya. The UN described the outbreak as the worst seen in over 25 years. One swarm of these insects reportedly measured 40 km by 60 km. According to the FAO, a locust swarm of a square kilometer can devour the same amount of food in one day as 35,000 people. Kuzi, an AI-powered early warning system, helps farmers safeguard their crops from this menace.

AI to help African farmers combat locusts

Kuzi is an early-warning AI tool that helps farmers across Africa control locusts and protect their produce. The tool is free and delivered via SMS in the regional languages of Kiswahili, Somali and Amharic. Over 200 million people in the area speak these languages. Kuzi is the Swahili name for the wattled starling, a bird renowned for eating locusts.

It has been developed by Selina Wamucii, a platform that helps businesses from anywhere in the world to buy and import food and agricultural produce from any African country with ease.

How Kuzi works

Kuzi is an AI tool that uses satellite data, soil sensor data, ground meteorological observation, and machine learning to predict the breeding, occurrence, and migration routes of desert locusts across the horn of Africa and Eastern African countries.

Furthermore, it sends SMS warning alerts of locust attacks 2 – 3 months in advance to farmers and agriculturists. (NEWS GHANA)

Kuzi uses a machine-learning model trained on the satellite data of soil moisture, wind, humidity, surface temperature, as well as on soil sensor data and the vegetation index. These are factors that affect the breeding, swarm formation, and movement of locusts.

The tool also creates a heat map of areas that are potentially high-risk for locust infestation. It forecasts their breeding, swarm formation, and migratory attack routes.

“A new wave of locust upsurge now threatens millions across Eastern and Southern Africa, exacerbating food insecurity for already vulnerable communities, amidst the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic,” warns John Oroko, CEO, Selina Wamucii. “We have a responsibility to develop and deploy locally bred solutions that address these challenges faced by our vulnerable rural communities.”

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Images of a heat map, satellite, and moisture meter: Selina Wamucii