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Muhammad Yousif got selected from among 50 students from across Sindh to take part in an online challenge "Master the Disaster Hackathon – Sindh", on June 6, held by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with Concepts Unlimited. The 50 selected students were divided into 10 teams. Yousif and his team were tasked to come up with a solution for climate change-induced disasters and their choice of topic was Locusts' Attacks.
Yousif and his team were winners from Challenge # 1 and now, their startup, initially named Net Gains, now Conserve Green, has been registered with National Incubation Center in Karachi. Yousif along with his other three team members are working on this project with the funding from UNDP of Rs. 100,000.
Brief description of the idea: The focus is to protect crops from locust attacks using trap nets. In case of a locust attack, much of the crops are destroyed creating a challenge of food security. They will be facilitating the installation of trap nets on the farms to protect crops and to capture locusts. This can be done during the day or night, but preferably at night because locusts do not travel at night and are usually solitary. Locusts contain 60% protein in their bodies and the captured locusts can be used as a soya bean replacement in the animal feed manufacturing industry which contains 40% of protein. Soya beans are an expensive import and have recently been associated with some health risks in Karachi. Utilizing the captured locusts in place of soya beans has an economic incentive to it and can help to eradicate health risks if any.