host: welcome to “global 3000”" nourishing earth -- why fertile soils are key to feeding our growing global population. better housing -- how are africa''s cities tackling the challenges of rapid growth? and poverty in the land of the champions -- how people in argentina are coping with a long-running crisis. comparing prices, hunting for bargains in markets and supermarkets. food is an expensive commodity

in argentina. prices there almost doubled er the course of a yea for years, theountry has been mired in economic crisis. on top of this, long-running droughts have led to widespread crop failures. around 17 million people -- roughly a third of the population -- live below the poverty line. reporter: ani and ezequiel have got a job to do. armed with a trolley, they comb through the city's garbage looking for cardboard, plastic, and anything else they can sell at a recycling plant. here in argentina, “cartoneros,” named after the spanish word for cardboard, are a common sight. ezequiel: getting your hands dirty, making an honest living. that's what we teach our kids. reporter: money was always tight for the couple, and now, devastatingly high inflation means they can barely make ends meet.

ani: we work every day, and now twice as much. one sackfull used to be enough to buy food, but now we need two. reporter: it's summertime, and scorching hot on the streets of buenos aires. but the world cup gave the country a much-needed breath of fresh air. the national football team's triumph in december was an excuse for a party that lasted three days. argentina has always been soccer-crazy. but the world cup win unleashed an unprecedented wave of nation-wide euphoria. after the relentless onslaught of bad news -- the financial crisis, spiraling inflation, and the pandemic -- there was finally something to celebrate and provide encouragement. ezequiel: it was balm for the soul. forget inflation, forget politics. at least we've now got three stars. ani:

it gives us hope. if you fight, you can win. and we're fighting. our team fought too, and won. reporter: it doesn't take long to fill up the sack. ani: we just got lucky. so much in one place, a stroke of luck. reporter: the car can't carry more than 100 kilos of extra weight. the sack that ezequiel is securing on the roof will earn them the equivalent of about 15 euros. fiorito is a poor neighborhood with a high crime rate. it's where diego maradona grew up.

a flawed hero of the people, a boy from the slums who rose to superstardom, who made mistakes but stirred unconditional love in his legions of fans. in the world cup final, when it looked like argentina might be defeated, ani turned to the late, great soccer legend. ani: i said, maradona, wherever you are, do something. send us your hand, your foot, your body, whatever. just don't let them score. and it worked. reporter: the sacks are full, but now comes the hard part -- sorting out the garbage. they'll be working well into the night. many of argentina's top footballers come from poor neighborhoods. the game is an escape from poverty. when darkness falls, crowds gather to watch unofficial football tournaments. there's quite a bit of cash at stake at these semi-legal events, known as “potreros.” it's how franco earns his

living, through betting. franco: i used to work and play but i earn much better now than with a normal job. reporter: the potrero circuit is the cradle of argentinian football. it's where players cut their teeth, and where many are discovered. franco: the cunning, the daring -- this is where the best players start out. this match is on fire. reporter: franco was once approached by a talent scout too, but didn't have what it takes to go professional. he earns enough to take care of his son and survive the financial crisis. franco is a local legend, but his income isn't secure. franco: we lost, they screwed us. doesn't matter. money comes and goes. we wanted to win but this time we didn't. reporter: another baking hot day in

fiorito. ani and ezequiel are exhausted. they were up separating rubbish until 3:00 in the morning. but there's no time to rest -- they need every peso. ezequiel: a lot of people don't realize what hard work this is. they think we're layabouts. they don't see what we do as work, but it is. and now i'll have to fix this too. reporter: they're about to head for the recycling yard to see how much they can get for their cardboard. despite the odds, they're optimistic. ani: our players are still so young but they're world champions. why shouldn't my dreams come true? my life is hard, but i've got a goal. i have children, grandchildren, neighbors. anything's possible. reporter: life these days is harder than ever. but ezequiel and ani aren't the

kind to complain. host: today, about one billion people live in africa south of the sahara. and, says the u.n., that number is set to double by mid-century. in a few years, most africans will also live in urban areas, partly because many people in rural areas are moving there in the hope of a better life. the boom is also fueling a housing crisis. today, about half of africa's urban population south of the sahara live in informal settlements. this poses a major challenge for growing cities. as this report from south africa's cape town shows. reporter: the township of masiphumelele near cape town has 30,000 residents spread across nearly 40 hectares. nozuko loliwe is sorting through the wreckage of her home. two weeks ago, a fire destroyed 178 shacks here, homes made of

corrugated metal on a wooden frame. nozuko: i ran out with nothing. the only thing i have left are my pajamas. my neighbor died in the fire. reporter: one of her friends filmed the inferno. fires like these are happening more frequently. as the population grows, people are living closer together. and heatwaves are also more common because of climate change. dozens of homes also burned down recently in cape town's biggest township, kayelitsha. and not for the first time. architect gloria pavita and her team from the ngo ikhayalami are rebuilding the houses. these new ones are affordable, and more durable. gloria: we're here to implement our zinc-aluminum structure which is fire retardant, theft retardant, and flood retardant to prevent other fires. reporter: this one survived the latest fire without a trace. the sheet metal they're using

is thicker, so fire can't spread as easily from home to home. ikhayalami is funded through donations. it's already built 3500 of these new models. in the xhosa language, ikhayalami means “my home.” the ngo wants to help people live in safety and dignity. cedric may's old corrugated iron hut was replaced a year ago. gloria: i'd like to see how things are going. cedric: yeah, everything is okay. and you can see the place, i am very happy about this. this is what we got here. this is very beautiful. this is our shower. gloria: fantastic. cedric: very soon we are going to put tiles in. gloria: oh, i can't wait. cedric: we had a one-room place, a one shack room. and you know, that thing was almost falling down when the wind came. oh, and i had headaches and all

that, and all the rain came through. that was at that time. but now i live in a beautiful place like this, i can only say thanks to god. reporter: cedric may works as a caddie on a golf course. his employer agreed to help finance the construction cost of around 1000 euros together with ikhayalami. this kind of co-financing is the basis of ikhayalami's funding model. gloria: we pre-finance as much as we can of the build. and the employers meet us halfway. and sometimes employees also partake in that. perhaps the employer can pay up front and then the employees pay back the employer at a rate that's suitable to their relationship and their financial reality. reporter: the golf course paid back their interest-free loan within a year. ikhayalami's housing initiative is part of the project bayit collaboration. it helps employers prode their workers with a better home for the equivalent of about 70 euros a month.

there's a huge demand. informal settlements will dominate africa's cities in the near future. they're already home to one in five cape to residents. joel bolnick is an urban development advisor. he says fire-resistant homes n quickly improve living conditions in townships in times of climate change. joel: summers are hotter, the winds are significantly more ferocious. cape town has always had heavy winds but now they're more sustained and more unpredictable and often much more volatile. and even the in-migration of people moving from the rural areas into the cities is pushed by the fact that sustainability and survivability in the rural areas is being profoundly impacted by the changes in climate. reporter: ikhayalami isn't only making homes fire resistant. together with the urban-think tank from eth zurich, the ngo has replaced an entire informal settlement with two-story homes.

the empower shack pilot project has already built more than 70 units. the last ones will be handed over to their new owners today. cape town's deputy mayor has arrived. the city council wants to officially honor the new homes and their owners. eddie: these small features are really important. it makes the home. it makes the home, it really does. it makes people taking pride in their asset. currently we have a population sitting at about 4.8 million people. the data suggests that we will surpass or come close to six million people by the end of this decade. we need to plan differently, we need to de-densify, and we need to secure partnerships to respond to the housing need. i think that's a good place to start. reporter: in an emergency, this street

provides access for fire trucks and ambulances. where corrugated iron huts once stood cramped together, there are now children playing. the project also plans to provide solar power for the neighborhood. alexander: we're looking at three megawatts of solar energy production in ikwezi park alone. and we see the potential for, i think it's about two gigawatts of renewable energy production in khayelitsha. reporter: initiatives like empower shack and ikhayalami are still too scarce in south africa, where they're desperately needed. people like nozuko loliwe can't wait for years for a safe place to live. nozuko: i'm devastated. that was my first fire and i haven't been sleeping well since. my neighbors say there's a big fire every summer, it's become normal here. reporter: in the last three years, fires

in cape town's informal settlements have nearly doubled to 5000 a year. in masiphumelele, they're worried that if summers keep getting hotter, this is just the beginning. host: how can we feed a world of 10 billion people by 2050, equitably and sustainably? just under five billion hectares of land are already being used by agriculture. that's around 37% of the global land surface. by mid-century, we'll need to produce about 60% more food to ensure that no one goes hungry. in recent decades, modern agricultural methods have led to greater harvests, but it's been at the expense of the soil. in manregions the world, large areas of arable land are now under threat. and yet a healthy soil is essential for successful harvests and for a healthy planet. reporter:

right now, these are living on your body. but don't worry, they are supposed to be there. ey are micbes, 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% of the planet's soil 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 unr our noses d our feet. see what ppens to soils when microbes get out of whack, we can look back to the 1930's in the united states. settlers replaced native grasses with farmland, and then intensively tilled, which killed microbes and degraded the soil. after a series of droughts, the damaged il was easily picked up by the wind and turned into so-called black blizzards.

millions of tons of topsoil just blew away in what came to be known as the dust bl. although farming methods have changed somewhat, soil degradation is still a global problem. cstina: what we are doing basicay is destroying the soil, that is a non-renewable resource. what we have been doing so far, during the last 200 years maybe, is to use soils as a substrate to grow plan. reporter: we've been undervaluing them and expecting them to stay healthy. but tilling, overusing chemicals, and climate change are harming our soils. this is a problem for growing food, as well as resources for clothing and construction. soil is also key to storing carbon and filtering water. to make soils healthy again, we need to start seeing them as what they are -- entire ecosystems teeming with hidden life, all run by microbes.

all is under our feet is topsoil, where most of the insects and microbes live, along with plant roots and small animals. one gram of this can contain millions of microbes. and a few worms. a healthy soil will have a diversity of microbes. the most common ones are bacteria, and fungi. one of their most important jobs is transforming nutrients. jennifer: every single nutrient cycle on the planet is mostly driven by microbes. none of these cycles really exist in a vacuum. they're all interlinked. reporter: one of those nutrient cycles is with carbon. plants and animals are made mostly of carbon, and when they die, they are broken down by microbes. 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 nutrient cycle happens with nitrogen, which makes up most of the air around us, and is one of the main nutrients

plants use to grow. plants can't get it from the air by themselves, so they partner up with microbes. and we can find evidence of the nutrient cycle by looking at certain plants, like these beans, which are considered nitrogen-fixing. the beans 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 fungi, also exchange other nutrients with plants. they have very fine roots called hyphae that intertwine themselves with the roots of the plant. jennifer: the fungus is really good at releasing things like phosphorous from soils, which is hard for plants to get at. so, it does that and exchanges that with the plant in return for things like sugars, which the plant can make through photosynthesis. reporter: there's also some evidence this relationship makes the plant more able to withstand drought and disease. in a degraded soil, these nutrient 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 and erode. intensive agriculture can be another cause, as pesticides and herbicides 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 farmed 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 plants don't grow as well. but soil health is about more than just our food security. jennifer: soil communities and soil health is actually the foundation of all ecosystems, both natural and manmade. if the foundation of something crumbles, everything else comes tumbling down. reporter: 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 are thriving. just look how beautiful these tomatoes are. no till agriculture leaves soil undisturbed, which allows the microbes living inside the clumps to thrive. specifically, those fungi hyphae, which are important for soil structure. there can be a kilometer of them in a gr of soil. and cover crops, planted to leave in the ground, provide microbes with carbon to chow down on as well as reduce erosion and nutrient loss. unfortunately, this kind of farming just isn't possible everywhere. cristina: if you can do it, that's fantastic. it's what we want. but the problem is the vast ount of areas where the soil

is so degraded that these techniques are not strong enough to recover the soil in due time. reporter: here's where microbes come in on a larger scale. the most common use is as biofertilizers. they're used like chemical-based fertilizer except they contain fungi or bacteria. soil degradation is a big enough threat that bayer, a company known for selling agricultural chemicals, is also interested. frank: they are currently already used in a number of countries. biological alternatives will certainly be an alternative and will certainly help to reduce chemical fertilizers. reporter: the company is also investing seeds that have been infused with microbes because delivering microbes along wi seeds is the most targeted way to apply them. seeds can also be planted with

a coating of microbes. conservation organizations are using this approach to restore ecosystems. a problem wi commercial microal product is that the microbes are not ecifically adapted to the 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 microbiome. cristina: this is something we really have to take into consideration, especially with fungi, because they spread faster and they are more efficient in design. reporter: even bayer agrees. frank: just because they are natural, it doesn't necessarily mean that they automatically are not harmful. reporter: 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. cristina:

we are going to need it because we have to recover soils. and this is the cheapest way to recover it because we are recovering them while we are maintaining productivity. reporter: so, for large farms, biofertilizers are a step above chemicals. and where possible, agriculture that relies on helping native microbes, like on this farm, is the way to go. host: our reporters have been tracking down tasty snacks again, this time in indonesia. reporter: semarang, a multicultural port city on the north coast of java, has been shaped by european, chinese, arabic, and javanese cultures. and that's reflected in its vibrant cuisine. one specialty can be found at untung usodo's take-away stand. lumpia is a kind of sweet or savory spring roll.

today's lumpia version was created when untung usodo's chinese grandfather and his indonesian grandmother combined their recipes more than 100 years ago. now, their grandson runs a snack bar and is sharing the lumpia recipe with us. >> we wash and cook the bamboo shoots until they're soft at home, then we bring them here and mix them with shrimp and eggs to make the filling. reporter: it all goes into a large wok, where it's quickly stirred and fried. then the mixture is spread onto a length of dough. now they have to work quickly. it's very popular with guests.

>> we produce 500 lumpia on weekdays, and twice as many on holidays. reporter: lumpia are served fresh or fried -- the price stays the same. before the coronavirus pandemic, customers used to line up at the stand and eat right here. the lumpia were served with a savory coconut sauce. today, the lumpia spring rolls are only sold in practical to-go boxes. >> every time i go to semarang, i have some of these lumpia. it's famous, a legend here. reporter: a legendary snack with a long tradition. host: and that's all from us at “global 3000” this week. thanks for joining us. we'd love to hear from you, so

write to us at global3000@dw.com. and come and find us on facebook too, dw global ideas. see you next time. and until then, take care. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.

berlin. violent protests bring parts of france to a standstill. another night of mass protest against the president's unpopular pension reforms and more are planned, and a visit by king charles has been postponed. also coming up, germany's chancellor praising the eu's tough banking rules as the bedrock of