A new perspective on why innovation is WANTED more than needed
Perspective. A view. Of things, of life, or of situations. All are determined by how light enters our eyes and how our minds process these views, technically. Figuratively, our perspective is determined by how the light hits our hearts, how we interpret it, and most importantly, how we act on this enlightenment. As in all matters of light, vision, and views, the angle at which we approach with, determines our focus as well as our reaction to it. One slight shift in the light’s incidence and suddenly our vision is clearer, is different, and at the right angles, it’s better.
Hi. I am Julie Makena. An Engineer and Safety Officer at Astral Aerial Solutions, a Kenyan drone operating company. Apart from managing drone safety, I also enjoy writing about our adventures and experiences in implementing the technology. This piece is about our most recent adventure in Samburu, where our team followed up on the impact we achieved while implementing drones in desert locust control. This particular trip gave me a gift. The gift of perspective-, received from Samburu county.
When we as young innovators set out to identify challenges and solve problems in our individual attempts to change the world, we sometimes get lost in the generalization of people, situations, and challenges and forget that they are real humans living real lives. And these precious lives are what we affect through our innovations for the better.
When our team first landed in Samburu, the purpose was to combat the desert locusts that were on a rampage across East Africa destroying crops, destroying pasture, and leaving a trail of loss wherever they traversed. We were out here fighting ecological enemies to save our people! And save the people we did through our own contribution by using desert locust spraying drones to supplement aircraft control sprayers and ground control crews.
When we came back this time, to document the work we did through a partnership between Astral Aerial, Frontier Technologies Livestream (FTL), and Center for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI), we did not anticipate that we were coming back to immerse ourselves in Samburu and its people. I, personally, did not anticipate that I was coming back to gain perspective…….
Hello there Samburu!
I am yet to receive a better welcome to a county than I have in Samburu. As we were just about to reach the Laikipia — Samburu border, we ran into a family of elephants from a local conservancy enjoying a cool drink of water from the communal watering hole. A much-needed refresher from the warm Rift Valley weather that day.
It was a sight! …. Honestly, it still amazes me that I live in a country blessed with such stunning wildlife!
That we get to encounter them along the road, is a blessing, to say the least. At the time, proceeding to Samburu did not feel like much of a priority, to be honest. We could just stay there a little while and bask in mother nature’s wild side, in 3D, HD, surround, and all forms of experiential mediums.
But we had objectives to pursue and so, we proceeded to cross the border, to enter Samburu.
Samburu is a land of beautiful undulating landscapes extending across horizons and fields of view. It felt like I was suddenly immersed in the vastness of geographical beauty. All of a sudden, I felt like such a tiny cog in the constantly turning gears of the natural world. It was not an intimidating feeling at all, but a rather humbling one. A stark reminder of the puzzle piece we are in the grand scheme of every living being around us and how perfectly we fit within the natural world.
I also enjoyed the stunning four—legged Samburu ambassadors as they posed to acknowledge explorers in their land, or rather give us a second to acknowledge the gift of their presence in this land.
Samburu community — the heartbeat of the county
The Samburu community at a glance is a colorful and culture-rich community whose expression is evident in everything. From their adornments to their dress, their pastoralist lifestyle; literally EVERYTHING! It almost felt like we had been invited to a secret cultural celebration, but at this party everyone was going about their normal day-to-day activities, oblivious to the said event. The fact that the Samburu community has held on to their culture in the face of cultural changes and modernization around them is admirable, to say the least. I had to jump in on the wave as well. I’m proud to state that this, is by far is one of the best outfits I’ve tried out in a long time!
Beyond the vibrant atmosphere, however, lies a community that struggles with major challenges. Some of which include inhabiting a region that is 92% arid and semi-arid conditions, frequent droughts, limited resources such as water, land, and pasture, and social conflicts like tribal clashes when fighting for these resources.
All these and a desert locust disaster added to their plate resulted in a difficult end of 2020, whose effects could be felt to date. The desert locust disaster hit the county at a time when farmers were about to harvest their commercial agricultural crop which comprised mostly of maize and beans. For the pastoralists, it was a time of plenty of pasture available for their livestock.
Our trip involved mostly visiting and chatting with the people who made Samburu. Conversations with the local community revealed the extent of damage and loss resulting from the desert locust swarms’ invasion. According to Ms. Seline Lemakara, the area chief, the swarms were like a dark cloud that floated low in the sky, before descending on the crops and in an instant clearing seasons worth of vegetation and produce. This happened repeatedly as they attempted to scare them away using whichever tools or methods they believed would have scared, distracted, or intimated the swarms and ultimately gotten them off their land.
These included lighting fires, making loud noises, running them off the land, chasing them off with blankets, and so forth, which were whoppingly ineffective in controlling the swarms. The vastness and numerous nature of typical desert locust swarms meant that they were only able to chase an insignificant number of locusts at a time with their efforts. One can only imagine their devastation when they finally had to face the desperate futility of their efforts and resign to spectating the destruction of their livelihoods in an instant. Watching valuable pasture parcels reduce to dry sand patches, or potential sources of income, school fees, sustenance suddenly disappear.
As Seline described these events, she seemed to go back to a dark place in her memory of the suffering and loss she watched her people endure replayed in her mind. I couldn’t help but admire her empathy and genuine heart for the people she served.
According to Samburuians, control efforts at the time included aircraft sprayers, ground control sprayers, and finally drone sprayers as a supplementary technology to compliment deployed team efforts. With the drones, we were able to access treetops, valley folds and crevices, scale steep escarpments and quickly traverse over swarms roosting in clusters spread out over these features. With drones, we were able to precisely target and neutralize the roosting swarms.
This was particularly important as other control means could not be able to access such areas. Getting to some of these locations was challenging enough in itself given the rough terrain where the locust swarms were located. For our teams, getting to these places meant walking kilometers with drones, chemical sprayers, and not to mention gallons of water at hand to reach strategic vantage points where the drones could take off.
Interestingly, this time, we still found ourselves chasing snakes off, while high voltage powerlines buzzed right over our heads as though they wouldn’t hesitate to summon a bolt upon anyone that pissed them off or got anywhere near them for that matter.
Being able to respond quickly to a desert locust attack was the biggest challenge we faced in response efforts. According to the FAO’s Desert Locust information service, a Desert Locust adult can consume roughly its own weight in fresh food per day which is about two grams every day! This is why, as disaster responders, there is a dire need to coordinate efforts to ensure that precious moments, within which thousands of acres of crops are destroyed, are not lost in misaligned efforts.
As drone responders and researchers, we took it upon ourselves to develop standard operating modes for implementing drones in desert locust control. This not only streamlined our response activities, at the time but in the long run, will make it easy for other drone response teams to quickly learn and replicate the same in the event of a desert locust attack, therefore exponentially improving our chances of eliminating them and alleviating subsequent destruction.
And the community appreciated our efforts for it. The socio-economic study from CABI, revealed that the local community, upon technology and solution sensitization, finally understood the significance of the unfamiliar young turks, from Nairobi walking around with most likely unfamiliar contraptions which they flew over their farms spraying the ecological invaders.
The level of appreciation and interest that we received in utilizing drones for crop spraying and even new applications such as herd spraying was overwhelming! They saw it, they saw us and our vision and they WANTED our solution. They wanted a better outcome in case this ever happened again and they looked at our CABI and Astral crew from Nairobi and related us with real solutions!
A new perspective
As I reflected back on everything I had experienced in Samburu on the drive back to the city, I knew, without a doubt, that we had done some good work here.
I also realized that there it was absolutely necessary for us to bring a little urban flavor to these outlands…….Absolutely nothing wrong with it 😉
Jokes aside, I will finish with this.
This, is why we innovate.
This, is why we try.
This, is why innovators make little strides into uncharted territory.
And THIS, is a reason to support technology innovations that solve problems.
We have to tell these stories. We have to seek out innovators at all costs.
Because the people we do this for, actually WANT them.
Innovations are truly seen, felt, and needed in these parts.
But mostly seen. In a new light and a newfound perspective.
