Tracking locust swarm

U.S. technology is helping nations fight swarms of desert locusts. The United States is helping African nations use less pesticide as they deal with threats to agriculture. U.s. Ambassador to United Nations food agencies Kip Tom, the African desert locust. Speaker2: I've never seen anything like this in my life that you would see the sky. It almost like a cloud storm was going over. Is actually locust flying over you. We're working with NOAA. We're getting weather patterns and wind patterns tracked. We're getting NASA data so we can understand soil types, soil moisture content. Because the African desert locust needs a certain soil type and certain moisture condition to lay eggs, and. Speaker1: People with mobile phones can help crowdsource the movements of locust swarms. Speaker2: We'll give them a geotagged location to go make an inspection to see if the hoppers are there, and they'll drive to that location. They'll take a picture that a geo reference it. It goes back to the aerial applicator, and the aerial applicator will come make the application. And we're doing this in a lot of places, whether it's Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda. We got to do it all by ground when we look at places like Yemen and Somalia. But the reality is we continue to see a growth in these new technologies and addressing these food security issues. And in the case of the African desert locust, we're talking nearly 15 million people affected. So we're trying to improve lives and livelihoods once again by using science. Speaker1: And even though Africa is a long way away, the lessons learned over there could certainly apply to domestic insect problems.