Many thanks to Gai Cullen from The Permaculture Research Institute of Kenya http://www.pri-kenya.org for flying and providing the research area and many thanks as well to Natalie Topa for organizing the tree (acacia xanthopholea) and grass (enteropogon macrostachyus and cenchrus ciliaris) seedballs for this test in Athi River.
To test a few various ways of dropping the seedballs we used a KitFox recreational aircraft - (0.5hours flight time @ 70$ running cost per hour) to drop 30kgs of seedballs (appx. 15,000seeds) along a 200 meter or so stretch on the top ridge of a new dam that was recently built on the farm.
This method shows good potential for targeted restoration for areas in the drylands where intense charcoal making/bush clearing has occurred especially around hard to reach low altitude hills.
We will continue researching costs and best practices for this type of aerial seed application and we will follow up on this site in 6 months to a year depending on rains to see whats grown.
You can learn more about this budding area of research into aerial seed application in East Africa from http://treeseedlist.blogspot.co.ke/20... and also http://www.seedballskenya.com
