we are. in support of. the you. hello and welcome to a new edition of eco africa. in lagos nigeria on today's show we'll be putting the focus on farming including a look at how high tech is changing i would call to a practices i'm joined by my colleague in uganda. and a big hello from kampala uganda to all of you as to what did you know that one thought

of the global population walks in the other cultures sicked here in africa it is over half the population that is why we decided to make a special edition that he's all about for me. will find out home in south africa should farming mix for you. and how food is grown with hydroponics in nigeria. and finally why farming doesn't have to mean deforestation. we start the show in south africa anyone who's ever been there will have noticed the thousands of kilometers of fencing that caught of course the land usually designed to contain the cuttle fences have a devastating effect on the environment they are not only a deadly trial for the way of life they also prevent a lifestyle from moving around freely which leaves all the grazing and non-degree addiction some hadas on the tree bossing this trend and they are spearheading an

ecological revolution. when the herders leave their livestock on to the great plains of the car route in central south africa the animals on allowed to linger. to protect the vegetation from overgrazing they have to be kept on the move as a result they can only eat the tips of the plants. head chef or dixon cooper has years of experience and of seeing how the landscape has changed since he's been grazing his animals here it has made it sound more pitches in the grass growth was not that much but now since we have put it in just the process we're heading. in that nor is it people now changing even your own crazing that is one quote that you've. heard is all part of the shepherding but biodiversity project it supports commercial. livestock keeping while boosting longer restoration on this 24000 hectare farm. was once much greener and home to millions of antelope and

buffalo their hooves loose in the topsoil while their droppings fertilized it. in a bid to recreate the great migrations of the past the project employs shepherds to lead livestock over the plains. is the project leader he's confident that herders can help revive the whole region. as we fundamentally believe that this method of farming give space for wildlife to co-exist with production i could call tree so that's really simple vision is to find a mechanism by which we can. foster biodiversity on production farms. the thousands of kilometers of fences needed for intensive livestock our culture one of the main reasons why wildlife has disappeared. fences prevent the animals from roaming free as they search for

grazing land and water. they often end up tangled in barbed wire. in order to study the effects of the fenceless farming method on the environment ecologist so monitoring the project. over the past 2 years ahead research your dinin mcmanus and a group of students have recorded the number of plant species in selected study sites. in addition the group evaluates the earth vegetation index the index is determined by the amount of green seen on the ground by satellites and allows researchers to compare plant growth in different regions over time. you can really start picking up changes in trains with the way the heat is being grazing especially over longer we still period in parts of the farm and the. green index shows up quite pronounced and we compared it to traditional farms where it

isn't quite as pronounced and they seems to be quite a significant. it's just looking at the pixels alone you know in taking the green out of pixelization but from that you can really start seeing a difference. there are many positive signs. areas that have been grazed by the herds on our seeing thick of plant growth. slowly while the animals are returning to the fall more than $500.00 antelope have been counted and even a leopard was recently started. a major success for dixon in cuba especially since south africa is still recovering from one of the worst droughts in recorded history . which in this process continues for the rest they lay with us so that is there any damage to be named and so that even the neighbors in other countries can be more inspired about what it has seen his take on. the project could inspire neighboring farmers many of

them saw their london grade and lost livestock due to the severe drought for the shepherds however this year's lambing season turned out to be very successful adding another $800.00 sheep to the herd slowly but surely the project is turning profitable. and now we go to germany where the ugly culture sector also plays an important role in the economy not surprisingly production there is becoming more and more more dead on tight tech no can grow bored and drones about the fields are part of daily life but now a new intervention could be added a robot in the field tell us more. it's a prototype sondra but he could make life far easier for the farmers in the future but i've used to farm using fewer people and vast sea of all resources envy and just 3 of the kids to help population let's have a look. here in this field

a prototype has been tested the hope is that this technology will be able to combat weans and improve harvests. meat on a rope a robot that works for organic farmer trying to customs. which clouded a 5th of life become a visionary in this operation because i'm trying to foresee the problems we'll have in a decade and i'm doing my best to solve them through for. the farmers already having problems finding enough employees to work his fields bonnie ray. could solve this labor shortage by recognizing weeds and destroying them without relying on chemicals but the robot is still at the learning stage or the farmer has brought in i.t. experts to help. us forster if. you can imagine drawing a picture with a green marker and a red marker and then we tell him that's a carrot and those are weeds and later we have pictures without anything and we tell the robot to find out where would you use the color red or gray and this is

what you see in the end it examines all the images and says you're away it was. artificial intelligence for farming. nowadays farmers also have to be engineers and software experts able to hook up heavy duty farm machinery to networks those networks collect and analyze data so farmers can optimize the use of seeds and fertilizer it's providing a new line of business for agricultural machinery engineers. even for listening and someday we'll have to feed line or 10000000000 people and that won't be possible with curry eels we have to become more efficient and we have to use our resources more wisely. research and practice are closely interlinked fuel efficiency tests for example are being conducted at the farm work i anchor himself learned his trade . this is the this is the route i've just programmed. the

tractor follows that route there's no need to steer satellite maps help the machinery stay exactly on calls but it also makes it possible to track in floyd's every move and spot every mistake digital technology is very useful for looking after the livestock to helping to boost profits feeding has long been automated panko says farmer should still visit their animals at least once a day. reopen. we currently have 2000 ok so feeding them by hand is inconceivable it's good to have fully automated feeding. full of the marshes find food on. the back of the carriage field the vegetable crop is being separated from the wheat spike hammed at least it's environmentally friendly the vehicle is powered by solar panels but it's difficult to find workers willing to pull up weeds for 8 hours when will this work be automated.

we know that in the long term we won't have these workers anymore so we need the technology to help keep the weeds on our fields in check of our current growth to go from here there's a big demand for big visions farming can benefit greatly from digitalisation. our dream is to come here with a small trailer open the door and then 100 drones fly out and around the field and do everything automatically this automotive. everything depends on the new technological possibilities and how we exploit them. these days farming is becoming increasingly high tech in europe i mean africa to here in nigeria for example there's a lot of research being done into solutions for feeding the booming population while protecting the environment we visit a company in lagos that is reducing the negative. impact of farming with an

innovative hydroponic system it uses less land and little or no salt for the cultivation of fresh produce the for helping drive on an agricultural revolution. these buzzkill possibly and little sponsor special they're being drowned with old use a normal song vision over to systemise cold i draw upon it to feed the plants the gardeners use. made from the block of the coconut tree. you transfer yours or not. your trunks with chemical additives. natural state and a special vegetable form micro nutrients and the plants need. they got no color we group began growing herds and vegetables in lagos 2 years ago fresh

produce is often difficult to find in the nigerian megacity and organic products are even harder to get off. with. i want to empower the farmers and also with the consumer in mind in terms of providing fresh quality produce to all consumers which is real farm to table which is part of the whole agricultural revolution that's going on in the world by growing locally they could even on the call the prices of the organic produce a villa pull in the city bodies still make profits conventionally grown vegetables so to other markets cost around 30 percent more than the organic ones here i buy keil spinny's in your late thirty's most of them i imported suv get very expensive but the seas look and the groom a danny so the price in us is very reasonable when you think about what you're getting nothing can be fresh for you know straight from from farm to mouth that

whole concept nothing if it's not too expensive. it's environmentally friendly other company only delivers within the city it keeps its carbon footprint low the firm is also helping other farmers to follow its example. we. a branch of the called and it's a part of the continent that literally you know butte people are pretty fond of them and then chance fights a day. so far they've helped 3 farmers to launch their own businesses. we are also planning to expand and are currently sitting up to new c.t. farms in lagos. here in africa effects of a climate crisis have never been more apparent and the farming sector is inevitably

hardest hit if you're a p.r. for use of the farmers plant what are supposed to be high yield crops every year but the parts that be barely have anything to harvest. in germany if european research are learning how to boost biodiversity and revive. writers that can withstand the drop by a mental threat. biologist. is showing 3 visitors around the fields of the life in its institute of plant genetics and crop plant research in central germany. so you think the 3 i work in the seed bank of the biodiversity institute in ad is the largest of its kind in africa they want to find out what their colleagues in germany are doing to improve the quality of crop seeds. the market likes the hands on part of the process here she's learning things she hopes to implement back home

she's manager of the seed bank and i decide. we don't know what tomorrow can bring so we always want to save our. life even though we support a life of food shelter maybe it's all what's a base for our living. it's a question of living. so housing in conserving is supporting life. shows her guests the treasure trove at the heart of the institute the seed bank with over 150000 some. pulls from crop plants from around the world gathered over a period of several decades to come. you know time. has been collaborating with her colleagues and for 9 years now. the diversity of species is astounding for

example that on more than 9000 varieties of being in the collection alone size pick up a seed bank here in gutters leaving is one of the largest in the world source of collecting mission the items in all the right is have lower yield but they can cope better with changing climatic conditions they're more robust in times of drought lack of water often turn soil acidic or leads to a build up of minerals and heavy metals these varieties can withstand all of that better than more fragile modern seeds more than a. lot of us are has got to know the problems farmers face in ethiopia firsthand for sure they tend to plant the same crops year in year out which leads to soil degradation and ever lower yields new varieties are needed. the institute in add is also has fields where new strains are tested strains developed that with the help of a german seed company. they're more back at the lightness institute in germany this

week has grown from seeds collected in the 1950 s. the variety actually originated in ethiopia but has died out there this is a 6 robo it samples have since been sent back to the seed bank and is ababa along with seeds of other crops once endemic to ethiopia really certain strains of wheat and mustard more than 7000 in all now they're back home and available for research and possibly cultivation we want to apply or to use our hero for sustainable. development so most of our seed. researchers from different research institutes in the country and students are. for their ph d. in the visitors from ethiopia want to expand the testing of older varieties at their own institute to establish which ones could withstand stress factors such as dryness or acidic soil an important step to boost sustainable farming in ethiopia

important that's what import and we stay in europe one next report in poland many farmers practice industrialised same passing fertilizers and pesticides are common as intensive life stock following but in recent years the demand has been changing with more and more people buying organically produced. it is a trend that we are seeing all over the world and important a country that is traditionally grounded in agriculture these growing market is providing opportunities to the increasing number of organic dairy farmers we went to meet some with cheese makers. in eastern poland helen scott is leaving her go to head through the meadows. a couple of years ago she and her daughter isabella to chose her started with a handful of animals now they take care of 300 goats. from them though the family

produces a variety of different organic cheeses that have become a hit with the locals. she said she added there was a time when people said oh good lord goat cheese no it really smells bad and it can't possibly taste good. and it took several years to convince poles to try some other chews besides the cow's milk factory kind. was practically nonexistent it's only now that it's become trendy. to chaska is one of the 1000 out isn't all cheese make his in poland the 25 year old is a psychologist by training but has decided to come on board in the family run business today the farm boasts more than 50 hecht is a pasture and produces around 10 tons of organic cheese each year.

another farm in the region that rancher a french era has a similar backstory. sylvia schlender of it and her family specialize in organic cows and sheep cheeses. some 15 years ago they left the city to buy a ramshackle farm. over the years they renovated it and turned it into a flourishing cheese business. they have no trouble selling their dairy close to home. but half in europe there are fewer and fewer natural rich herbs and so i think that's one reason why our cheese is such a hit not only with coles that but also some italian french or spanish people too so his final in poland organic food still has a small market share compared to other european nations. yet the demand is growing rapidly. more and more people are willing to pay

a premium for high quality and sustainably produced food that means there are lots of opportunities for the country's organic cheese farmers to grow their herds even bigger but. all too often and all over the world farming goes huntin hard with different station in many african countries sloshing and a bunny is the way to prepare land for planting crops regardless of whether that land is depleted or the time but many overlook the fact that this method destroys the so way down below the surface one young man in senegal has come up with an alternative one that is good for the soil and the air and can even produce better harvests. these are shoes are still hot recently trees are cut down here and one to make room for new fields in. the tropical forest and on the village of

subtle insult on senegal is endangered. the palmer of palm is an archon part of the forest it provides the villagers with fruit with wood to build on each other with palm leaves for their roofs of the huts . but again and again the forest is into late clement somebody who is a farmer from start to who wants to protect the trees he sees the slash and burn my thought is actually harmful for agriculture although the new fields may be far to binding also causes soil erosion which is bad for the palmar of palm trees. i don't care for paul. this is an example of a devastating bushfire last year someone set a fire here and dangerous left you can see the back of the street bond down to the bees and that means the whole tree is now much more vulnerable to. the new

way. a crisis meeting village elder christophe kali explains how serious the situation ease slashing and burning does not only destroy forest and control fires threaten the village itself. and i'm very. busy resuming a founded a committee that will look into the organization of a troll i don't turn to villagers from our own suit to participating in order to get this bush fires under control. i don't want to put a bill but the farm with lemon some who doesn't think but trolls will help he discovered a method on the internet which will make depleted soils for tell again this method is called google quota or he'll culture fussed over unusable logs and dead branches is laid down leaves grass and weeds is put on top then it only needs watering

in time it becomes a fight a bed for planting clement's some who tried it on his own fields and was successful . or not good but we only want to eat once a week so not a lot and if you put your hands on top of it it's as if you're a deep in the woods a really nice damp foreign soil and that's just what the plants need to do for a live report is more when you put. this in terms villagers planted mostly veggie tables on their fields clemence some teaches them the forest friendly method. which also gives them valuable compost for. farmer cecil said not decided to use the compost on her fields. miracle my wrangler said look it can and i make comcast it gives me a profit instead of having to buy for to live with these profit i take care of my

house and i take care of my children my 2 nephews i can go. to the market to buy the hands that he raised to secure my future and save a forest master that can deposit. it so when we news in compost to revitalize the depleted fields and make them fatten again takes the pony up on trees in so too and the whole tropical forest. i'm afraid we've run out of time for today we hope the show has given you some useful information on how farming can help positive but also devastating effect on the environment from the ecological farming to new technologies that's it for this week. goodbye from lagos nigeria and goodbye from me to here in kampala uganda will be back next week with the new edition of africa in the meantime if you want to get in touch visit our website or you can drop us

a line to stay safe see you next time good bye.

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