Adaptive Environmental Monitoring Networks for East Africa

Mr. Emmanuel oyo, AdEMNEA Project Co-PI in South Sudan attaining the Drone Flight Training alongside Khemis.

FINALLY, there is light at the end of a tumultuous tunnel for farmers in the northern part of South Sudan at least, according to the latest research conducted by the University of Juba revealed that the just concluded drone training and testing involved evaluating the impact of locusts, weaver birds and other pests to their food crops and fruit crops such as rice, grain, millet, mangoes and several green plants.

Reports from the farmers’ union through the Agricultural Bank of South Sudan indicated that the appearance of the locusts followed a period of extreme weather, including devastating floods hence threatening the food supply and the cropping season. In addition, the presence of weaver birds that attack the sorghum there by eating the grains just before harvest affected several regions of South Sudan bringing about food shortages in most parts of South Sudan.

In a bid to address such challenges, the University of Juba continues to conduct several studies and research particularly, partnering with Makerere University (Uganda), Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (Tanzania), University of Bergen (Norway) and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU, Norway) consequently culminating into a fully-fledged Adaptive project; Adaptive Environmental Monitoring Network of East Africa (AdEMNEA Project).

The Training Team at the University of Juba - Helping out Khemis.

Khemis Ben Lubari, a PhD student at Makerere University’s IoT-ra Lab and a staff at the University of Juba has focused on Algorithmic Optimization for Data Transmission Scheduling and Flight Path for drones in Agricultural Sensor Networks. One of his immediate Applications is – the use of remotely piloted or self-piloted aircraft (UAV/Drones) that carry sensors and other communication equipment to help monitor the availability of locusts and other pests affecting crops.

Several features are used to record videos of infested or damage fruits on the trees. “If we are to record such a video, we have to enable the object avoidance feature on the drone to avoid catastrophe and allow the drone to maneuver its way around the fruits without colliding with the trees and record the videos,” Khemis remarks.

“We ensure the batteries and the remote controller (base stations) are fully charged, in the fields we remove the control sticks from the storage and screw them into place on the remote controller. We then unfold the antennas of the remote controller as well as the drone’s propellers. We power the remote controller first then the drone. The drone is fully connected to the base station (flight controller) when the lights change from red to blue,” he added.

The tech-savvy and PhD student revealed that flying a drone/UAV required Internet connection in order to activate the remote controller and following the screen prompts. With reference to the University of Juba that lied between four to six kilometres from Juba International Airport and further reported that specific settings must be adhered to for instance, the flight height of one hundred meters followed by selection of the flight mode.

NEXT PLANS.

Khemis says further development of algorithm that run on top of the existing algorithms is required in order to attain the desired results. He plans to revisit Juba as part of his study and establish whether the drone can see other signals apart from the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi signals between itself and the flight controller.

Dr. Julianne Sansa-Otim the principal Investigator of the AdEMNEA project at Makerere and also one of Khemis’ supervisor, delightfully expressed that this study has potential to empower farming communities with much needed information to guide decision-making such as whether or not to spray pesticides or fertilizers which directly correlate with profitability of agriculture and food security.

“Khemis’ technical contribution to the Adaptive Environment monitoring network will lead to more optimised flight paths and data schedules from ground sensors to the drones. This is critical capacity building in drone technology within the East African region.” Dr. Julianne said.

Project set to Support Research Capability Building

The Norwegian Ministry (NORAD) wishes to lift the capacity of the partners, Makerere included. rogramme. This project has a particular signifi cance in the sense that it is an ongoing Collaboration.

Protecting our Bee Species

Bees are very Esssential to our Livelihood

MAAIF Collaboration with AdEMNEA Project

Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) – will support the systematic monitoring of fruit fl ies and bee species.

Deputy Vice Chancellor lauds AdEMNEA Initiative

It is a rich project covering a number of areas like Application of ICTs, Agriculture, Beekeeping and the environment in general.

Internet Of Things (IoT)/Sensors

an interconnection via the internet, of computing devices that are embedded in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data. At the heart of IoT are sensors that can measure physical properties.

TUNADO excited about AdEMNEA products

TUNADO supported our poposal writing by giving us a support letter and we hope they will support the monitoring of the species because it is in their core interest. They will also maintain the bee monitoring units during and after the project.

Principal welcomes AdEMNEA Project

The credit from doing a job excellently for five years does not go to an individual, but to the university and the country at large.

Integrated Fruit Control

Most of our farmers are not able to export fruits to Europe and other foreign markets because of the fruit pest that damages over 80% of the crop. The only solution therefore is to have a very strong surveillance program.

RENU pledges to Support the AdEMNEA Project

RENU will provide linkages to similar projects for benchmarking as they are supporting some IoT-based projects and providing connectivity for them

Bee Farming & Honey Production – A Juicy Source of Income/Employment for the Youths.

A TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED FARMING ENVIRONMENT? WE WANT TO BE INVOLVED.

TUNADO, A SAFE HAVEN FOR BEE FARMERS.

AdEMNEA Project Engages Bee Farmers at Apiculture MSP.

THE SMART BEE MONITOR SYSTEM TURNS APICULTURE INTO A MODERN TRADE

‘THE SMART BEE MONITOR SYSTEM MAKES APICULTURE A MODERN TRADE’ SAYS MR. BIRYOMUMAISHO, THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR – TUNADO.

TECHNOLOGY TO INCREASE YIELDS IN LARGE SCALE BEE FARMS

“TECHNOLOGY WILL MASSIVELY IMPACT LARGE SCALE BEE FARMING AND INCREASE YIELDS IN THE LONG RUN” SAYS MRS. BEATRICE – HEAD OF EXPORTS, MINISTRY OF SCIENCE, INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY.

INTERNET OF THINGS (I.o.Ts) HERE TO ENHANCE BEE MONITORING & FRUIT-FLY CONTROL – Dr. Mary Nsabagwa.

Internet of Things (I.o.Ts) HERE TO ENHANCE BEE MONITORING & FRUIT-FLY CONTROL – Dr. Mary Nsabagwa.

THE SMART BEE MONITOR – AN ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE ANIMAL INDUSTRY & FISHERIES (MAAIF). Dr. Amulen Deborah (Entomologist - MAK).

PHD/ MASTERS STUDENTS EYE THE
PRIZE!!!

WORK PACKAGE ONE (WP1): NETWORKS & RESILIENCE.

Ephrance E Namugenyi

WORK PACKAGE ONE (WP1): NETWORKS & RESILIENCE.

Mr. Erick John Machiwa

Khemis Ben (lubari7@gmail.com)

Mr. David Tugume (tdavidjcl@gmail.com)

Mr. Oswaha Matthew Joseph

WORK PACKAGE TWO (WP2): SENSOR & SIGNAL PROCESSING.

Ms. Agatha Turyagyenda

Ms. Agatha Turyagyenda

Mr. Arnold Muhairwe

Mr. Florence Lello

Pest Control - Mango fruit growers can finally have maximum fruit yields.

By Mr. Peter Alvin Mukisa & Ms. Rebecca Rugyendo (Communications Desk – AdEMNEA Project)

The Smart Bee-Monitor: A silver lining for Uganda’s bee farmers.

Bee farmers will soon acquire a new way of monitoring their hives, check on the swarming activities and keep track of their product (honey) accumulated in the hives.

As the Adaptive Environmental Monitoring Network for East Africa (AdEMNEA) project enters phase two (2), much more emphasis will be put on customizing the monitoring network to the primary stakeholders such as bee farmers and mango fruit growers in East Africa (particularly Uganda, Tanzania and South Sudan).

COSTECH ready to lend a hand with customer uptake.

“At COSTECH, we pride in translating research outputs into knowledge products and in turn increase customer acceptance, breaking the research outputs into applicable products, commercializing the end product to promote sustainability for the project’s output and enabling resource utilization,” Mr. Mboma, the tech savvy personnel remarked.

Provide Training and Advisory to the beneficiaries of your research outputs – TARI

The Tanzanian Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) offers advisory to government and promote national policies, laws and regulations in addition to conducting basic, applied and strategic agricultural research.

Inter-Task Integration pivotal to timely outputs

The multi-disciplinary aspect of the AdEMNEA project implies that the research outputs are divided into tasks; work packages (WP1, 2 & 3) from a couple of regimen – Computing, Engineering, Entomology, Crop Science and Meteorology.

Climate-focused innovations to thrive under NEMA supervision.

The AdEMNEA project recently participated in the National Science Week hosted by the STI secretariat under the President’s office in Uganda. The participation was by exhibiting some of the innovations (e.g. the smart bee monitor, the automatic weather station, etc…) that have been developed in the IoT-ra lab at Makerere University.

Private Corporate Funds – a Feasible solution to Uganda’s innovations and start-ups.

Presently, Uganda relies on corporate companies such as National Social Security Fund (NSSF), Standard Bank Group (Stanbic Bank, SBG), Uganda Development Bank (UDB), Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) among others who have taken up the role to offer support to start-ups mainly due to the lack of nationalized incubation business centers.

Pest Control - Mango fruit growers can finally have maximum fruit yields.

Florence Lello a PhD student at the Dar es salaam Institute of Technology (DIT) and part of the AdEMNEA Project under task 2.2 says the research output (E-Trap) focuses on oriental fruit flies (bactrocera dorsalls). “the trap will help in fruit fly detection in relation to weather information – providing a platform for forecasting the occurrence probability and development trends of fruit flies,” the PhD student noted.

The study will be one of those firsts in South Sudan to characterize bee species using molecular methods.

A GLIMMER OF HOPE FOR SOUTH SUDANESE FOOD CROP FARMERS.

Khemis’ technical contribution to the Adaptive Environment monitoring network will lead to more optimised flight paths and data schedules from ground sensors to the drones. This is critical capacity building in drone technology within the East African region.

FRUIT-FLY EXPOSITORY RESEARCH TAKES UGANDA’S HORTICULTURE TO A BRAND NEW LEVEL.

We hope to develop local alternatives for the growing fruit industry in Uganda.

MULTI-PURPOSE APPROACH PIVOTAL TO PRESERVATION OF HONEY BEE SPECIES.

SUSTAINING A TOXIN-FREE ECO-SYSTEM KEY TO PRESERVING UGANDA’S HONEY BEE.

The research mainly focuses on pests, parasites; parasitoids and pathogens while assessing the role of the environment and the in-hive reservoirs of honeybee pathogens.

WEATHER-BASED RESEARCH – A TIMELY APPROACH TO FRUIT FLY CONCENTRATION AND CONTROL.

The on-going process further aims to examine the prevailing Weather patterns and analyse the farmers’ readiness to handling the fruit fly plague.