News

Locust-Tec project contribution to Sustainable Development Goals: https://www.bmbf-client.de/en/news/sdg-success-story-locust-tec

The project video has been published on official DLR YouTube channel and summerizes our research and goals: https://www.dlr.de/en/latest/news/2023/03/satellites-detect-where-locust-infestations-begin. Direct to video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MvoluD4r87Q

Locust-Tec team and scientists from International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), stakeholders from Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa (DLCO-EA), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and The Bug Picture (https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-bug-picture/) met to discuss project results, recent progress and future needs for sustainable locust management.

Today, the Locust-Tec team introduced their main project results as well as developed SUN Mobil Locust-Tec application to State Inspection Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan as part of holistic solution for more effective and timely fast management of locust pests in Kazakhstan (including monitoring, control and reporting).

The last training aimed to implement final feedback from regional officers of entire Pavlodar oblast and introduce the reporting functions as well as how to exploit available open source geoinformation and remote sensing data in combination with detailed field information.

In this training local locust officers and stakeholders were introduced and trained to SUN mobil application, which includes functions from locust detection in field, information flow to regional officers and final decision makers. This contributes to accelerate decision process from monitoring infested areas to actual control with minimum time loss.

During our 3rd field campaign the development of Moroccan locust nymphs was fully ongoing. Local locust officers identified several locations with groups of 2nd and 3rd nymph stage which enabled our team to follow up on UAV, mobil application and electrical grid developments.

In collaboration with the Department of Agricultural Sciences at University of Sassari a new study was published using Sentinel-2 data to assess recent locust outbreak in Sardinia, Italy and how remote sensing can be used to predict areas which are prone to Moroccan locust invasion and population increase.

From July 24th, 2022, the Locust-Tec team travelled to the Pavlodar Oblast in North-East Kazakhstan to conduct the second field campaign for Italian locust (Calliptamus italicus). Together with local locust officers from Pavlodar branch office, the team visitted several location where Italian locust was undergoing pairaing and egg laying phase. Besides testing the SuN-Mobil locust application in operational mode, the team conducted further training and validation of the results derived from remote sensing data.

From May 8th, 2022, the Locust-Tec team travelled to the Turkistan Oblast in South Kazakhstan to conduct the second field campaign for Moroccan locust (Dociostaurus maroccanus). After more than two years the team was able to travell again and be in field during the development of Moroccan locust nymphs. Local locust offices identified several locations with Moroccan locust groups of 2nd and 3rd nymph state which enabled our team to follow up on UAV, mobil application and electrical grid developments.

In collaboration with International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), Locust-Tec project and ICIPE examine early respond to desert locust swarming in eastern Africa.

On 26, 27 and 28 October 2021, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) hosted the international CLIENT conference (https://client2-konferenz.adelphi.de/ ) At this conference, the Locust-Tec project was introduced in a short video presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN3C5mbwcpY

Due to COVID-19 pandemic and travelling restrictions, the Locust-Tec project has established a cooperation with a German locust breeding farm to enable additional tests in Germany under laboratory conditions. The breeding farm “Reptile Food Handels- & Zucht GmbH” provided the oportunity to test the electric grid concept on Desert Locust (Schistocerca gregaria) and Asian Migratory Locust (Locusta migratoria) at different development stages of the gregarious phase.

Locust-Tec SunMobil application is being tested for field surveys and data collection in Pavlodar oblast. The application was designed based on specific requirements for Italian locust surveys in Pavlodar and enables collection of different Italian locust life cycle parameters for regional monitoring tasks.

Due to recent desert locust upsurge in parts of East-Africa and South Asia, Locust-Tec works on transferability of several project activties.

Project participants from Quellwerke GmbH, Schwing & Dr. Neureither and DLR met for a technical workshop to implement new features into Locust-Tec application which has been designed specifically for partners in Pavlodar to collect field information.

Participation at “Green Central Asia - Enhancing environment, climate and water resilience” conference where the German Federal Foreign Office launched a regional initiative on climate and security in Central Asia and Afghanistan. For more information please visit: https://green-central-asia.net/ and https://www.bmbf-client.de/neuigkeiten/client-ii-projekte-auf-green-central-asia-konferenz

Quellwerke GmbH and VBSUN conducted a technical hands-on training regarding the usage of the Locust SUN-Mobile application for the partners from all Rayons in Pavlodar Oblast. The participants learnt and practiced to handle the application and tested it during several field trips.

17-18 September, 2019: Around 250 participants were present at to discuss innovative concepts for different topics in the context of climate, environment and energy. The Locust-Tec project was presented within a poster session. For more information please visit: https://www.bmbf-client.de/en/news/client-ii-conference-thank-you

On 9th June, 2019 the Pavlodar regional office welcomed Locust-Tec participants in the city of Pavlodar and organized a field campaign to different spots where Italian Locusts were spotted. Equipment, approaches and software were tested under different environmental conditions.

From April 7th, 2019, the Locust-Tec team travelled from Almaty around 1000km south-west to the Turkistan Oblast to conduct the first field campaign. Several Moroccan Locust bands were located with the support of local authoreties and Kazakh participants. The team was able to test the new UAV and camera system as well as the first electric grid prototype.

Project participants from Kazakh Research Institute of Plant Protection and Quarantine and German participants met on 12th December, 2018 for annual meeting at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich. After two days workshop the Kazakh participants visited the companies Horizont in Korbach, Schwing and Dr. Neureither in Mosbach and Quellwerke in Eberbach. During the Christmas season the Locust-Tec working group had a chance to visit Mosbach Christmas market and got an official welcoming from Mosbach Mayor.

On 26th October, 2018 the Locust-Tec project and concept was presented at “Germany and Kazakhstan - Partner for development of sustainable agriculture” conference in Astana.

All Kazakh and German participants of the Locust-Tec project met in Almaty on 22nd October. The project partners presented their recent research, activities and existing locust management solutions. Field campaign plans for 2019 were discussed and coordinated. The time schedule for the envisaged activities in the Turkistan and Pavlodar Oblast were set up.

In September 2018, a first extended workshop for all CLIENT-II funded projects took place in Bonn, Germany. The aim was to get an overview of all projects and improve regional networks.

Kickoff Meeting at German Aerospace Center (DLR) German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) was held on 2nd of August 2018 in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich.