a documentary series founders belly with the founders, impelling their continent through digital innovation a transformer, working and living conditions in their country, and inspiring with their ideas. on the valley, africa started february 13 on the w. a . in we are losing the ground beneath our feet because our soil is in trouble. over the past century,

we've treated it like dirt. we've abused it with plowing tilling and too much fertilizer. now, soil erosion is threatening our food production. how could tiny microbes help save the soil that our planet depends on warren, that in a bit. and also coming up on the show, feeding fish with a phone. the tech company, promising bigger profits for fish, farmers building better? the startup reinventing one of the world's biggest fuel to a mattress and robots, to the rescue. the helpers that could and the construction crisis. welcome to this addition of made the w's business magazine. for most of us, this rotten apple looks like it belongs and the trash worms are, and all that popular and neither or mold and fun guy. and then they're all these other micro organisms that have long and complicated names. but microbes can be

incredibly useful and not just in the lab where they can be cultured. these tiny organisms have been assigned a big task, bringing our soil back to life. thus, because microbes can be miraculous, they can up deliver nutrients to plants, breakdown, waste, and boost foil fertility was the ground beneath our feet and trouble. we have to make the most of microbes. we took a closer look. right now. these are living on your body. but don't worry, they're supposed to be there, they're microscopes and the planet is covered in them. and there are tons of them in the soil because they literally make fertilizer for plants. these are some of the only things on earth that can do this. we depend on soil for almost all of the food that we eat. and because 90 percent of the planet's oil could be degraded by 2050 scientists and even agribusiness think microbes could be key to averting a food crisis. so let's take a journey to the invisible world right under our noses and our feet to see

what happens to soils when microbes get out of whack. we can look back to the 1930s in the united states. settlers replace native grasses with farmland and then intensively tilt which killed microbes and degraded so after a series of droughts. the damage soil was easily picked up by the wind and turned it to so called black blizzards. millions of tons of tops, well, just blew away in what came to be known as the dust bowl. although farming methods have changed, somewhat soil degradation is still a global problem. so what we are doing basically is destroying the soil day and now and not renewable for what we have been doing so far in the last 2 and the navy e d u soil, out after the strike to grow plan. we've been under valuing them and expecting them

to stay healthy, but tilling over using chemicals and climate change are harming or soil. this is a problem for growing food, as well as resources for clothing in construction. soil is also key to storing carbon and filtering water. to make so else healthy again, we need to start seeing them as what they are, entire ecosystems teeming with hidden life. i'll run by my groups. all this under our feet is top soil where most of the insects and micros live along with plant roots and small animals. one gram of this can contain millions of microbes. and a few worms, healthy soil have a diversity of microbes. the most common ones are bacteria and fungus. one of their most important jobs is transforming nutrients. every single nutrients cycle on the planet, mostly driven by microscope, none of these to cycle that really exists in a vacuum. they all into one of those nutrients cycles. as with carbon,

plants and animals are made mostly of carbon. and when they died, they're broken down my, my groups. no microbes, no decomposition. the microbes use some of the carbon to reproduce, storing it in the soil, and breathe the rest of it out, sending it back to the atmosphere. another nutrients cycle happens with the nitrogen, which makes most of the air around us, and is one of the main nutrients plants used to grow. plants can't get it from the air by themselves, so they partner with microbes. and we can find evidence of the nutrients cycle by looking at certain plants like these beans, which are considered nitrogen. fixing the beams, create these little root nodules that become home to a certain type of bacteria. in return, they change nitrogen into a form that plants can access microbes, specifically fund guy, also exchange other nutrients of plants. they are very fine routes called hifi. the intertwined themselves with the roots at the plant. the fungus is really good at

releasing things like spots for the site from flow, which is the place to get. so it does the end exchanges that with the plan in return for things like sugar, which the plant can make tricks. there's also some evidence this relationship makes the plant more able to withstand drought and disease in a degraded soil. these new chain cycles aren't working as well as they could be. climate change is one cause of degrading soils with drought and extreme weather, causing them to dry out in a road intensive. agriculture can be another cause as pesticides and are besides kill off beneficial microbes and reduce their activity. the more degraded soil is the more chemicals are needed to grow stuff degrading the soil even further. this whole plot of land was intensively farm for 30 years. and you can really see it in the soil. it's super sandy, dry and degraded. degraded soils also lose their ability to hold and filter water

are more susceptible to erosion and have less of those beneficial microbes, meaning plans don't grow as well. but soil health is about more than just our food security. boyle community health is actually the foundation of all persistence, but natural and man. if the nation of something crumble, everything else comes tumbling down and agriculture might actually hold the key to making our soils healthy. again, the same plot of land, not so far from the degraded bit years of regenerative agriculture have brought back a lot of microbial activity. the soil looks completely different. this farm is a best practice example. no chemicals are used and the soil microbes, arthur riving. just look how beautiful these 2 meters are. you know, tell agriculture, leave soil undisturbed which allows the microbes living inside the clamps to thrive . specifically those fund guy, high feet,

which are important for soil structure. there can be a kilometer of them and a grams, soil and cover crops planted to leave in the ground, right? micros of carbon to chow, down on, as well as reduce erosion and nutrient las unfortunately, this kind of farming just isn't possible everywhere. if you can do it. so that's the key word me. once that the ballroom is the vast amount of areas where the store we sell gravy, then the next on the now to recover the soil in your time. here's your microbes come in a larger scale. the most common uses is bio fertilizers. they use like chemical base fertilizer if they contain fun guy or bacteria. soil divert ation is a big enough threat that bear a company known for selling i will. cultural chemicals is also interested. they're telling me already in the countries by good,

which is certainly certainly help to review the chemical for the company is also investing in seeds that have been infused with microsoft because delivering microbes along with seeds is the most targeted way to apply them. seats can also be planted with a coating of microbes, conservation organizations are using this approach to restore ecosystem. a problem with commercial microbial products is that the microns are not specifically adaptive environment. non native microbes could find it hard to survive, rendering the process useless. and because these are living organisms, they could cause an imbalance in the micro biome. we see something we, we really have to, to taking concentration, especially. we found he could be brad faster and they are more on

the side. even better agrees. because they doesn't necessarily need automatically, i'm not, i'm not since soils are different around the world. we would ideally develop microbial products for specific regions, but that will take time and more research. unfortunately, our soil health is an emergency. we are going to need. we actually govern the cheapest way to do recovery because we are covering them while we are maintaining the tv. so for large firms, bio fertilizers are a step above chemicals and where possible. agriculture that relies on helping native microbes like on this farm is the way to go. my crops can help us feed the world for many years to come. but even though we are ready produce enough food to feed every one,

it's estimated that $1.00 and $3.00 people are malnourished worldwide. at the same time, many who do have access to enough food don't eat the right things, and there's no house looked into how the world feeds itself. food we eat either too much too little or the wrong kinds. adequate safe and nutritious food for every one. it's a fundamental right in a $162.00 countries, and yet, so many around the world have too little to eat. 800000000 people go hungry worldwide, especially in africa, asia, and latin america. and that number's rising. yet many people eat much more than they need. almost 2 thirds of the world's adults are overweight or even obese. overeating can lead to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. in addition to the suffering these illnesses cause they're expensive and damaged the economy. one study suggests that obesity will cost china $10.00

trillion us dollars by 2060. it will cost the u. s. $2.00 trillion dollars and india some $850000000.00. it's often caused by eating the wrong food, something that's true for people living in poverty and the well fed alike. too many bad carbohydrates, like white bread, white rice, sugar and too much animal fat. all found in popular ready made meals. the foods we eat don't contain enough fiber, protein vitamins or trace elements. and who are the big winners here worldwide? food giants like nestle as well as stock exchange, speculators who bet on basic commodities like rice in weeks. the clear loses are poor people in developing countries who have no choice but to pay those commodity exchange was pandemic, and climate change only add to the misery. and yet none of the world's 8000000 inhabitants would have to go hungry. there is more than enough food to go round.

global agriculture produces assert more calories than i needed to feed the entire world. if food were distributed fairly, everyone could have enough to eat. fresh fish can be part of a healthy diet and the world has a big appetite for it. the fish farming industry is booming. it's the labor intensive process, but digital technology can help in our smartphone business series, we introduce you to an indonesian startup that wants to revolutionize how we feed our fish with an app. if this is providing realty surfaces that can help farmers to fit the fisher politically lead us connected to the censured atkinson, the fish appetite and since the data to the cloud and farmers can monitor it using the smartphone. hi, my name is debra has eva, i'm ceo in cal funder of a fishery using the data,

we can sell the feet to the farmers and buy directly to infuse manufacturers. we provide financing and then we also take and buy the fish from the farmers and sell it to the buyers. the reason why they use our product is not because this helped them at the very beginning. pd, myself and one to help me. and then at the end of the day they use it i used to be a catfish farmer, so that's my favorite fisher, a catfish will started initially. i actually was official myself. and when i had the ideal to build the feeder, it was just about, you know, building the feeder for my fish pharmacy. so it's, it's a simple idea. small idea for a small business. most of the agriculture. oh farmers. in indonesia, they don't have a good input. for example, the price is fresh up by the middle man. they don't have access to fight formal financing. it was definitely challenging. and the very beginning to farmers that

don't have any mobile phone. and they don't know the cloud what, what is cloud cloud is, is in the sky the for the rain. but what we did is not trying to sell about the technology itself, but try to convince the farmers that technology can help their daily basis. so the very beginning, we let the pharmacy, the smartphone, and we educate them on how to use the smart by using this week and replace the most labor intensive process of the farmers. do. we just the feeding and we can feed the fish like $5200.00 times per day. so eventually the fish will grow faster and we can save the feeding cost, want to keep it. and all wilken w i th with i was born in written jakarta and i hate to come to the top 50, for example, in the top $100.00 startups in indonesia. most of them are based in jakarta which

shows quite a centralization of their talents and centralization. of the capitol itself and bundle is there some place to be efficient? don't need to be in japan because the wheel is all problems in a rural area and west. java is the biggest fish producers in indonesia. but the very beginning, the bird was not kicking off. we ran out of money for 9 months, and i said to my team, then hey, i couldn't pay this month if you still believe in the fishery, please come back next next month. but if you want to find out the work, please do most interesting. part of that story is that when i said that to my team, the day after everyone went to the office and they were like regularly as usual thing. all of the investors. you did, you had in indonesia and every single one predicted because i pitch this as

a niche market. so it's really and scalable and unsexy for many investors. we were lucky enough that we met one investor of venture capital base in netherland. that invest quantity in culture companies. we were their 2nd investment the 1st 7 years, we only raised less than $5000000.00. we. we just raised like 90000000 when the 20000000 over the past 23 years we were deleting the market right now. i like sport, sport is the only additional outside work that i that i do then that keeps me not just healthy, but my mind a fresh because i started my date of working out. and then after that, i have massive energy to then getting things done for the day.

so my advice for the future funders is so fundamental and important problems, not just follow trends, follow the problems, and solve it with technology. solving a problem with technology is also the mantra of our next report, which is all about concrete concrete and the cement that goes into it are one of the biggest carbon emitters in the world. it's production alone releases much more c o 2 than the aviation industry. for example. at the same time concrete is essential for building housing. a tricky situation i called for creative solutions . start up in berlin has found an answer, using artificial intelligence to help cement and concrete go green. these small bits of rock have a big impact on the environment. they're being processed into cement,

which involves heating them to 1450 degrees celsius. so cement and the concrete goes into produce huge amounts of c o. 2. they approach benner has developed a less environmentally damaging method of producing concrete. i've been new up with concrete and cement the industry is responsible for 8 percent of global c o. 2 emissions. that's a major problem, and one i want to saw as a shall said, flows most of the co founder of the startup ausa me comes from a family that has been making cement and concrete for decades. spinners plan is to fine tune the cement manufacturing process and to carry that forward into concrete manufacturing. good, and each concrete mixture is the product of many ingredients and variables. else me is developed a i based software to help optimize and de carbonized these recipes, planted with phone, look, the planet will be uninhabitable for our children, for my children on the it's in the next 5 to 10 years. there's

a lot of leverage to change that illness. the cement and concrete industry is responsible for 8 percent of global emissions, but it's a lot of leverage. zachary gunners, i have the ai program has come up with an environmentally friendly concrete mix for this high rise building under construction in berlin. but just for to of it's $37.00 floors because there's still one major drawback. was written as this god and also to for the time being low carbon concrete is relatively expensive one because a lot more. oh, can you talk about this? so the extent to which you can use it in a project of this size among is basically a question of money on an indian baton. for this project on it's almost twice as expensive up to stop her to call. it also takes about 30 percent more time to dry. with the building, that's 37 stories tall. that's a big financial and time investment. but li approach bender is confident that also me will make it possible to produce low carbon concrete at scale. and that has

potential for the open coming green construction industry. on con, there are favorable loans available for sustainable construction projects. you're more likely to secure property and, and investment. there are also property funds, specifically for sustainable buildings. so in that respect, there's growing pressure for change from now. with more environmentally friendly concrete. nothing should be standing in the way of building more housing. well, not quite. building costs are on the rise worldwide, and jobs in the construction industry often remain vacant. many parts of the world are facing a construction crisis, but a swift tech business is here to change that their autonomy. robots are helping make the construction industry more efficient. so will robots help us build the cities of the future? let's take a look. ah, this ray lunch is lacking on a building site district, annoyed fisher force the to have been significant advances in the technology on the

digital platforms. you time home. they can work alone in elevator shafts. you've been beaten now we can be a lot quicker with the robot systems than when we drill the usual way. older robots will transform the construction industry. it could make building less costly. but what will happen to builders? experts say that simple, but physically strenuous tasks could soon be in the hands of robots. it's already becoming a reality in switzerland. i. robot is in charge of building this framework for concrete reinforcement. these are the last few tests before it goes to markets. a completely new kind of robot with just the right touch for the job at hand, owns and puts it in our process, look to the robot presses against the framework, which creates a contact, well, the contact charges on campus. and so there's an algorithm that regulates the

amount of force that is needed and load cells so that the material is applied in a control manner. control you. ah, it got it. so we're not necessarily trying to be faster or better than a humana. and for the robot makes it possible to create a larger variety of shailesh with which gives us more flexibility in terms of design to form. gave the rise robot is having its debut in dubai. in skyscrapers it does the work normally done by fittest in elevator shafts. for example, the robot knows which drill bits to use but again, the robot receives the configuration file, meaning a program that is specifically designed for the elevator shaft. it needs to be to recognize its dimensions. you know, how many holes it has to drill and where waterloo, despite the benefits,

few of the robots have been sold. the construction industry is conservative and tends to be slow to adopt to innovations everywhere in the world. it's been quite a slow process, but now it's getting underway. and there's no turning back the clock. more and more . robots said, going on the market like robots that can drill ahead. we'll get back to the robotic dog in a minute. robots so say make building cheaper and faster because they also mean that more and more components can be made in factories activity taking them to the end of the way we work, we'll change but the jobs won't disappear once all to see demand is high. so high can fairly be met and then until we're now in an interesting period of transformation in which we could reduce costs and make it possible for people in

the construction industry to work in parallel with robots on sites like flushed and often to work in jobs that are more pleasant helps in factories that handle pre fabrication for faster gold. so that'll be still a prototype. it scans the building site with a laser recording what's been done and spotting where the mistakes have been made. the rainbow doke is the same price as a mid range comp. building companies say that the price can be quickly recruit. for example, if it sounds the alarm because the safety fence is missing, another benefit robots can work 247, and don't clock off. at the end of the day, from reviving our depleted soils to reinventing one of the world's biggest polluters in an episode filled with tech driven optimism and ingenuity. remember you can find all of our reports, a d, w dot com slash mate. you can also check out more business stories on the dw news youtube channel. i'm on the xena. thanks for watching from me and the me team here

in berlin. you next time and take care. ah ah ah ah ah ah, ah ah, with

ah, injury conflict. some of the worst violence in years is broken out between the israelis and palestinians. u. s. secretary of state, i'm going to bring them cold on both sides to calm tension and set a 2 state solution was the only way to end the conflict. my guess with week is that

of the palestinian mission to the u. k. o some law because he believe that's possible. conflict with 30 minutes on d. w. in super food or climate killer. accardo and blueberries, from south america. as global demand growth, this thirsty produce is causing droughts and water shortages where it's being cultivated. people are fighting over every drop with what's the actual price of these much hype, super food in 75 minutes on dw david. evelyn share my welcome to my podcast. love matter by and by celebrities influences and experts to talk about all playing. loved back from day to day. nothing

less because all these things and more and then you know, season off the pot come, make sure to tune and wherever you get your past and join the conversation because you know it love matter. mm. with scoring, do we say they were about giving up sports like every weekend on d. w in john jan doris to searches for the truth again. this time that the exiled turkish journalist meets svetlana tihano, sky exiled leader of the opposition in bella. bruce, and of course i'm tired and tired, physically untied. morally, it's too much on my shoulders,

but i have to hold this weight because i'm responsible for the future of our country, for the people who are behind the boss. guardians of truth starts february 18th on d, w. ah, ah ah, this is d w. news live for berlin? manas said farewell to tyree nichols at his funeral in memphis, tennessee. usps, vice president, capillaries was among those who paid their last respects to the young man whose death at the hands of police officers last month revived a national outcry against.