Project summary

EntoMetrics Africa is a boots-on-the-ground tech project designed to stop black soldier fly (BSF) larvae from burning up in industrial farming bins across East Africa. BSF farming is booming in the Global South because it's a cheap, eco-friendly substitute for expensive soy and fishmeal feed. But local farmers hit a brutal bottleneck: deep rearing bins experience massive, unmonitored heat spikes that shoot past 38°C. Because the larvae are packed in tightly, they can't escape. Millions of insects literally suffocate and die from the heat before harvest, wiping out a farmer's income overnight.

Our solution is rugged and built for the local context. We're building tough, stainless-steel IoT probes that stick right into the substrate bins. These probes connect to a 2G SMS alert gateway. If a bin gets dangerously hot, the system sends an instant text message to the operator's phone. This gives them a clear window to mix, vent, or turn the bins before losing the whole batch.

Our team brings together local hardware builders, agricultural data specialists, and an independent biostatistician. We plan to deploy these sensor setups across 25 commercial BSF facilities in the Greater Nairobi region, protecting a massive scale of roughly 3 billion larvae every year. By catching that 38°C threshold early and texting farmers to intervene, we are targeting a 15% drop in pre-harvest larval death rates across our partner network.

This isn't just about saving yields for local farmers, though. We are using the continuous, real-world microclimate data collected from these 25 sites to submit formal insect welfare guidelines to the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) for code KS 2921. This gives us a massive policy leverage point to establish legal welfare benchmarks for the entire region.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

Our main goal is simple: cut pre-harvest larval mortality by 15% across our 25-farm pilot network, and use that hard telemetry data to shape Kenya's national agricultural standards.

• Phase 1: Getting Ready & Tech Calibration (Months 1–3): We will dig into the literature on BSF heat tolerance to lock in our exact alert triggers and stocking limits. At the same time, we'll assemble our 316-grade stainless-steel SHT31-D substrate probes with protective PTFE membranes and configure the 2G SMS gateways. We will officially sign up our 25 partner facilities in Nairobi, Kiambu, and Machakos, auditing their baseline mortality rates so we have a clear control metric.

• Phase 2: Launching the Sensors & Testing (Months 4–6): We'll install the probes to log baseline temperatures and natural mortality rates first. Our advisor, Fernán Gizzi, will approve our cluster sample sizes and statistical calculations before we turn the live SMS text alerts on. Once live, we will track how fast operators respond to the texts and run a mid-pilot data review to share with KEBS.

• Phase 3: The Data Push & Scaling Plans (Months 7–9): We'll run comparative trials across randomized cohorts using blinded video scoring to watch larval behavior. We will calculate the exact dollar cost it takes to save an individual larva and open up our onboarding pipeline for a second wave of facilities.

• Phase 4: Policy Delivery & Final Reports (Months 10–12): We'll measure the final endline mortality rates against our Year 1 baselines, wrap up our peer scientific review, and publish our First-Year Impact Report. Finally, we'll hand over our full microclimate and trial datasets to KEBS to directly write the rules for code KS 2921.

How will this funding be used?

We need $100,000 to keep our small, multi-disciplinary team running and execute this full 12-month pilot on the ground:

• Core Team Salaries ($45,000): This covers 12 months of full-time work split across our three core team members (~$15,000 each). This keeps Clinton Adoga (Executive Director), Mary Wairimu (Operations & Field Data), and Paul Murani (IoT Engineer) focused entirely on delivery.

• Hardware & Deploying the Telemetry ($28,000): This pays for the physical gear across our 25 primary partner sites plus necessary backup spares (~$1,120 per site all-in). It includes the SHT31-D sensors, PTFE waterproof membranes, rugged 316 stainless-steel sleeves, and the 2G cellular modules.

• Scientific Advisory — Fernán Gizzi ($18,000): Deliverable-based pay covering roughly 60 hours of expert consulting. Fernán will design our strict trial protocols, handle our statistical analysis plans, and lead the final scientific data review.

• Running the Trials & Lab Audits ($6,000): Covers our comparative trial costs, setting up the blind video scoring infrastructure, travel to rural sites, and basic logistics for auditing facilities.

• Admin & Bureaucracy Buffer ($3,000): Pays for holding stakeholder roundtables with KEBS, mapping out legal partnership agreements with local farmers, and general operational emergencies.

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

• Clinton Adoga (Executive Director & Lead Founder): An agritech founder who knows the local ecosystem inside out. He previously co-founded AgriGlow, which was successful enough to be acquired by KALRO (Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization). Clinton handles our relationships with commercial facilities, high-level partnerships, and directly manages our engagement with KEBS.

• Fernán Gizzi (Independent Scientific Advisor — Part-Time, Remote): Currently a PhD candidate in Biological Sciences at IBR-CONICET / Universidad Nacional de Rosario in Argentina, and an Assistant Professor of Physical Chemistry. He also co-founded Agrosintex. Fernán builds our statistical game plan, figures out our sample sizes, defines our welfare endpoints, and keeps our science bulletproof.

• Paul Murani (IoT & Systems Engineer — On the Ground, Kenya): A brilliant electronics engineer who specializes in low-power microcontrollers, cellular telemetry, and building hardware that survives harsh, off-grid agricultural environments in East Africa. Paul oversees assembly, probe calibration, the custom SMS gateway firmware, and keeps our network uptime running.

• Mary Wairimu (Operations & Field Data Lead — On the Ground, Kenya): A specialist in data systems and rural field work. Mary runs our day-to-day on-farm trial logistics, manages local enumerators, checks data collection quality, and handles our quantitative monitoring across the network.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

• Risk 1: Farmers get alert fatigue and ignore the text messages.

• Our fix: We start monitoring how fast operators respond to alerts right from Month 4. If they start lagging, we'll reframe the SMS copy to focus on the immediate cash loss they face by letting that specific batch of biomass suffocate.

• Risk 2: The nasty, wet, and acidic conditions inside BSF bins ruin the electronics.

• Our fix: We're bypassing cheap plastic. We are housing our sensors inside industrial-grade 316 stainless-steel sleeves paired with specialized PTFE membranes, and we'll be tracking sensor drift and failure rates weekly starting in Month 2.

• Risk 3: Dealing with government red tape means KEBS takes longer than 12 months to pass the policy change.

• Our outcome: Even if the formal bureaucratic wheels turn slowly, the project doesn't fail. Our 25 partner farms keep using the telemetry setup as a commercial yield-protection tool, and we walk away with a mountain of real-world data to anchor our expansion across East Africa.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

$0. We are a brand-new organization launching this specific initiative from scratch.