00:00It's a new part of her morning routine,
00:03collecting seaweed for the garden.
00:12Caroline Kennedy runs a camp on a small island off Kiwayo,
00:16off the Kenyan coast.
00:17She'll use the seaweed to help improve her vegetable beds.
00:21So we actually don't have soil here.
00:24It's sand.
00:25So the challenge is trying to make soil and source water
00:32and use it as economically as possible
00:35because we don't have running water here.
00:39All our water is brought in by donkeys.
00:41And that's why I contacted Sue
00:45so that she could help us understand how to do things properly.
00:51Biologist Sue Kahumbu specializes in regenerating soil.
00:55She's become known as Kenya's soil whisperer.
00:59But this is the first time she's attempted to transform sand into fertile soil
01:04under such difficult conditions.
01:06I absolutely do believe that we can turn this sand into soil that will produce food for consumption here.
01:18We do have to look at other issues, the heat, the humidity, the moisture that's lost in the ground very,
01:30very quickly.
01:31We also have to look at the salinity of the soil and also the salinity of the air.
01:38But if we look around us, everything is green.
01:44Nobody's been putting fertilizers on this place.
01:47But how could vegetables possibly grow and thrive in these conditions?
01:53Sue Kahumbu's approach, inoculating the ground, which means adding microorganisms.
01:58Kitchen scraps like fruit peelings or leaves are perfectly sufficient to provide the nutrients needed.
02:05Microbes then begin to form in the soil.
02:08Sue Kahumbu adopted this concept from American microbiologist Elaine Inham, who passed away recently.
02:16Going through her course and seeing that happen and learning how to make compost as a biological inoculant, not as
02:25a fertilizer.
02:26And then seeing it work, seeing it change, seeing plants react differently, seeing entire ecosystems change
02:33based on igniting the life underground as opposed to continuing killing the life underground
02:41and pushing in a chemical support system has just, yeah, for me it has been the most eye-opening journey
02:51in my entire journey in agriculture.
02:54Now she can attest whether this works with sand as well.
02:58The most important thing is to keep the ground moist.
03:01To do this, the team uses leaves from native plants like aloe vera or the algae they collected in the
03:07morning.
03:08They also measure moisture levels in the ground at regular intervals.
03:13This helps them save a lot of water.
03:16At first, they were using 200 liters a day.
03:19Now, they only water when the plants need it.
03:23And, equally important, checking whether enough minerals are present in the ground.
03:29Whether it's sand or soil, the scientist wants to bring out the best in every type of ground.
03:36For more than 20 years, Sukahumbu has been working to improve soil quality in Kenya.
03:43Over 60 percent of the farmland in Kenya has degraded soil.
03:48Across Africa generally, that figure is at least 65 percent.
03:53In major cities like the capital, Nairobi, the soil is also heavily contaminated,
03:58mainly due to pollution from traffic and discarded waste.
04:01Soil degradation in urban settlements is a really, really big issue.
04:06And especially around informal settlements, because there's a lot of toxicity that's in the soil.
04:11There's a lot of compaction that's in the soil, as you can see from this area.
04:15When you grow plants in a toxic environment, A, it's more difficult to grow.
04:19But those plants also can suck up those toxins.
04:23Christopher Wyzaka has been experimenting with ways to improve the soil in the city
04:28with his community-based organization, Comb Greens Solutions.
04:33Three years ago, he took an online course led by Sukahumbu.
04:38Now, they are meeting in person for the first time in the neighborhood of Korogosho, where Christopher lives.
04:45It's not far from one of the capital's largest landfills.
04:48And I find that we are close to the dam site, which is like a kilometer.
04:53Find that this area is polluted, even the soil, not only the air.
04:57Even the soil is polluted, the water is polluted.
04:59And you can believe, if the water is polluted, the soil is also polluted.
05:04In 2017, he and other residents launched the Comb Green initiative to improve their neighborhood.
05:09Their first project was to clean up the banks of the Nairobi River and create a park.
05:15Later, they also began revitalizing the soil on their own property and growing vegetables.
05:23The soil which we are having here, through the training, we know how to make the soil to look healthy.
05:29And apart of that, also, we are using compost, which is organic.
05:33Back on Kiwayu Island, they are also early signs of success.
05:38Some trees have taken root, and one variety of beans is doing well.
05:43Zukahumbu is hopeful.
05:45Tests in her mobile lab show that microbes have accumulated in the sandy soil.
05:50That means that humans can form, providing essential nutrients.
05:54I think that there's huge potential to restore soils anywhere.
05:59The microbial story is what needs to be corrected.
06:04And microbes have amazing remediation capacities.
06:10It looks like her experiment here will be a success, allowing organic vegetables to thrive in the sand, despite the
06:19adverse conditions.
06:22What struck me the most in this story is just how invisible soil is to most of us.
06:27And yet, how deeply it shapes everything, from the food we eat to the health and potential of a nation.
06:33I've learned that restoring soil isn't just about farming.
06:37It's about rebuilding life from the ground up and rethinking how we grow, how we feed and sustain our cities
06:44and our future.
06:45So, thank you very much.
06:46Thank you for sharing your resource.
06:49You
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