Turning plagues of locusts into chicken feed – in pictures

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The biggest swarms of the insects in a generation have devastated crops and grazing across Africa but are now being turned into sustainable, high-protein animal fodder and fertiliser

  • Photographs by Baz Ratner

Staff and agencies

Main image: A chicken tucks into crushed desert locusts at a farm near the town of Rumuruti, Kenya

  • Kenya is facing its worst plagues of locusts in decades. Since December 2019, huge swarms have caused devastation across east Africa
    Kenya is facing some of the worst locust plagues in decades, but a start-up hopes to transform the pests into profits and bring “hope to the hopeless” whose crops and livelihoods are being destroyed by the insects.

  • A dik-dik antelope near Nanyuki, Kenya. Erratic weather patterns aggravated by the climate crisis have caused locust numbers to surge. Crops and grazing land have been stripped, leaving countries battling to avoid a food crisis
    Desert locusts fly past a dik-dik antelope near the town of Nanyuki, Kenya, January, 2021

  • The Bug Picture, a pioneering agricultural startup, is working with communities in Kenya to test harvesting and processing the insects for farmers to use as animal feed and fertiliser
    Desert locusts fly near the town of Rumuruti, Kenya, February, 2021.

  • Laura Stanford, founder of The Bug Picture, says she was inspired by a project in Pakistan, which paid farmers to trap locusts that were then turned into high-protein animal feed
    Desert locusts are caught in a net near the town of Rumuruti, Kenya, February, 2021.

  • The Bug Picture pays 50 Kenyan shillings (32p) for every kilo of the insects harvested. Very large swarms can extend over 2,400 sq km – an area the size of Luxembourg – and can contain nearly 200bn insects
    A man harvests desert locusts, near the town of Rumuruti, Kenya, February, 2021.

  • A net is used to harvest desert locusts near Rumuruti, Kenya. A 100 sq km swarm can eat what 3.5 million people would eat in a day
    Men use a net to harvest desert locusts, near the town of Rumuruti, Kenya, February, 2021.

  • Joseph Mejia, a farmer in Rumuruti holds his torch in his mouth to keep his hands free for harvesting the locusts
    Joseph Mejia, a farmer in Laikipia county, Kenya, holds a torch in his mouth while harvesting desert locusts

  • In the first 18 days of February, 1.3 tons of locusts were harvested as part of the project – worth a year’s wages in much of Kenya
    A man carries a sack of locusts on his shoulder

  • A barrel is used to crush sackloads of harvested locusts
    Workers use a barrel to crush sacks filled with harvested desert locusts, at a farm near Rumuruti.

  • The crushed insects are left out to dry before being milled and made into animal feed
    A chicken feeds on crushed desert locusts after they were left out to dry, before the locusts are made into animal feed, at a farm near the town of Rumuruti, Kenya, February 3, 2021.

  • Philip Ouma carries out laboratory tests to determine the nutritional value of the desert locusts at Spectralab in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi
    Philip Ouma, a laboratory manager, Nairobi, Kenya, February, 2021.
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