David Hughes put aside his work studying ant behavior at Penn State University in 2012 to launch PlantVillage, a United Nations-backed initiative that uses smartphones and AI to help farmers from West Africa to Australia adapt to climate change. Initially used to track and assist with plant diseases, the app was rapidly recalibrated in 2020 to assist with a historic locust plague that hit dozens of countries, including Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
Here’s how the apps work:
PlantVillage
Farmers experiencing crop blight photograph plants and upload the images to PlantVillage, where they are analyzed by AI that diagnoses the issue and delivers detailed instructions for how to treat it. Farmers in surrounding villages are warned about the issue, and sent tips to prevent it.
eLocust3M
The app eLocust3m helps track and stop locust swarms. A hired team scours the region on motor scooters, photographing swarms and marking their GPS location. Using AI, the app predicts where locusts will travel next, allowing the government to send out targeted pesticide sprays.
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