NSF highlights WKU research in Africa |Date: Tuesday, May 29th,
2012||Return to Archive| “High-tech Scarecrows for Low-tech
Farms” — a report on a WKU research project in Africa — is
featured on the National Science Foundation’s SEE (Science,
Engineering & Education) Innovation website. In the project,
funded by the National Science Foundation and Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation through their joint Basic Research to Enable
Agricultural Development (BREAD) program, researchers from WKU
are developing low-cost, automated systems to reduce crop damage
by large mammals in sub-Saharan Africa, where some areas have
seen crop losses greater than 90 percent. Across Africa, the top
vertebrate wildlife pests include birds, primates, elephants, a
variety of antelope species, buffalo, pigs and porcupines. While
crop damage due to wild mammals is a major problem for
subsistence farmers living near wild lands or protected areas,
these animals are vital and visible parts of ecosystems and the
source of much foreign income