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Growing bamboo is paying off economically and environmentally in Kenya's communities. In Uganda, young and old are learning how to farm organically in a community garden.
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00:05What is stronger than steel can grow more than a meter in just one day and can repair damaged
00:13landscapes. No, it's not a Marvel superhero. It's bamboo. It is a botanical overachiever.
00:22Furniture. Fences. Toothbrushes. Hair extensions. Straws. Construction. Clothing. And that is why it is called Green Gold.
00:40It can clean your teeth and help fight landslides. Bamboo. A plant with many talents.
00:49And it can help store carbon from the atmosphere, restore degraded land and protect vulnerable hillsides from erosion.
00:58The steep slopes of Vihiga County in western Kenya. Here, heavy rains regularly wash away fertile soil and trigger landslides.
01:09It is a challenge that farmer Victor Mwanga has been dealing with for many years.
01:15It's so sloppy. In some areas, you are actually at a gradient of about 60, 70 degrees.
01:24And this is a heavy rainfall area. So we receive so much rainfall.
01:28Kenya is prone to landslides. In April 2024, a flash flood caused devastating landslides that killed around 50 people.
01:38So, as climate change drives more frequent and intense rainfall, many communities are now looking for ways to protect vulnerable
01:46hillsides.
01:48Victor Mwanga has been doing just that since 2012 by planting bamboo.
01:54It develops a dense underground system that helps anchor fragile soils. And it takes only about five years to reach
02:03maturity.
02:04If it was not for these bamboos, all these would be prone to soil erosion.
02:09It would have lost a lot of soil here. It would have caused siltation in the springs.
02:16You know, some of the springs would even have disappeared because of the heap of soil that is washed into
02:24the valley.
02:25Mwanga believes the planting of the bamboo has resulted in more water running in this stream.
02:32It provides for him and his neighbors.
02:36The roots form like a mesh. A mesh and a sponge.
02:41So when it rains, instead of the runoff, this mesh acts as a sponge. It's able to store this water,
02:50absorb it, and then release it slowly.
02:53And that is what now protects most of these water catchment areas.
02:57It is not only in Kenya. It is a trend across Africa.
03:03Governments promote bamboo as a nature-based solution for land restoration and climate adaptation.
03:09Bamboo has been planted along vulnerable river banks and flood protection dikes in an effort to reduce erosion, runoff, and
03:18flooding.
03:19But some bamboo species produce seeds only once every few decades.
03:25To speed things up, scientists take tiny pieces of bamboo tissue and grow them in the lab.
03:31Now, a single plant can be multiplied quickly into thousands of seedlings.
03:36Now, when we have these natural seedlings from tissue culture, we are taking from the shoot induction to planting the
03:46field, it takes us three to four months.
03:50Bamboo is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
03:53Some species can become invasive, spread aggressively, and destroy the balance of an ecosystem.
04:01Choosing the right species is key.
04:05The bamboo that is ideal for our situation is the clamping type of bamboo.
04:12So clamping means they grow together in a group of stems clustered together, so they grow in a cluster.
04:23The two sounds, they are very different.
04:26That is young.
04:28That is mature.
04:30That sound tells Victor which stems are ready to harvest.
04:35Their next stop is his factory, where 67 people turned bamboo into everyday products.
04:41In 2019, Kenya officially recognized bamboo as a cash crop, hoping it could create jobs and new sources of income.
04:50So you're in an industry, you're trying to learn things, to prove to the market that whatever you're producing is
04:55the best.
04:56So it's a nice feeling. Everyday you learn, everyday you're inventing something new.
05:04There you go, you have a straw.
05:07So this is mostly used by entertainment joints, where they make dawa, and you use this as a straw.
05:17So then, just by doing that, you're already eliminating the use of plastic.
05:24The stems become products. The roots stay in the ground.
05:28For Mwanga, that is bamboo's promise.
05:32A harvest he can sell, and the soil he can keep.
05:38I still remember my grandmother saying to me,
05:41the kindest thing you can give someone is a smile.
05:44I always admired her for her knowledge and her kindness.
05:48And I think I'm not the only one who feels like that.
05:51Now, a project in Uganda shows how grandmothers are adding to their traditional wisdom.
05:57And going back to school. Such strong women.
06:04Who says you are ever too old to learn greener ways to farm?
06:09That's exactly what 90-year-old Mebo Isiko is doing.
06:22She is among 60 community members, young and old, training at Uganda's Ekomama Global Village in ways to build resilience
06:31to climate change.
06:53As the climate warms and changes conditions, rural communities have to adapt and adopt more sustainable practices.
07:00This includes reducing reliance on synthetic agriculture chemicals while maintaining soil fertility.
07:07Trainer Geoffrey Bunde guides the group through different techniques.
07:11Here, they learn how to prepare an organic pest repellent using ash and other ingredients.
07:17So, now, we boil, it turns brown. After turning brown, we put it down, it concentrates, and we get this
07:26potassium.
07:28It works like saipa, as you know saipa. But ours, it is organic, not inorganic. We don't apply any acidity.
07:36So, after here, we fritter. Like this, then we take for spraying. Everything is here, potassium and zinc, we get
07:44from this ash.
07:46The group also learns practical techniques for growing vegetables and setting up gardens at home.
07:53It is one year and a half since I began teaching these people. But they are my witnesses. They have
07:59changed their lives. This is because they are getting vegetables which are even organic.
08:04And proving that the youth are not the only ones shaping the future, everyone has a role to play in
08:11building a more sustainable tomorrow.
08:15One week, tomatoes are affordable. The next, they are not. Here in Lagos, the annual food inflation rate right now
08:24is just over 34%. That's a lot of pressure on household budgets.
08:29Now, one of the causes is unpredictable weather. Rainfall and flooding earlier this year damaged crops and disrupted transportation.
08:39So, what can we do to make crops more climate resilient?
08:44When I think of a greenhouse, I think of plants quietly growing in the soil.
08:49But this one looks more like a factory. Plants are lining up to be scanned 24-7 from all possible
08:55angles and turned into data.
08:56The goal is to choose or even consciously design crops that are fit for the future.
09:01I would call it a gym for plants.
09:02Because somehow, we need to feed 8 billion people in a hotter world with less land, less water and unpredictable
09:09weather.
09:10So, can this greenhouse help us figure out how?
09:18We are in Wageningen in the Netherlands.
09:22It all feels, as far as the eye can see.
09:26The country has been dubbed the Silicon Valley of agriculture and is covered in greenhouses.
09:31We are on our way to one. It sits on the campus of Wageningen University. Everything is green here.
09:36So sour, but tasty.
09:39It's not built to harvest tons of tomatoes, but for research, to find out which plants perform best under stress.
09:46And we're here. That's the greenhouse over there.
09:49It looks a bit like a space station growing food.
09:55Here, they can mimic almost any environmental condition on Earth and see how plants respond.
10:00We can regulate temperature, so we can give them a heat stress phase.
10:04We can freeze shortly, so we can simulate a night frost, which could be very disruptive for the young plants.
10:10We can introduce salinity, maybe by adding salt water in the tank.
10:15It's like a time machine for global warming.
10:19The usual playbook of agriculture relies on predictable seasons, plant in spring, harvest in fall, for example.
10:25But now…
10:26A lack of rain in recent years, repeated heat waves, a warming planet, plus more extreme and unusual weather.
10:34All of that affects what farmers harvest.
10:37This is the curve of agricultural productivity in recent years.
10:41It's been plateauing lately.
10:43Farming is hitting limits.
10:45Exhausted soils, less water and less cultivable land.
10:49But the pressure is on.
10:50To feed 10 billion people by 2050, we'll need much more food.
10:5550% more, in fact.
10:56People are eating more meat, which takes more grain to produce, and demand for biofuels from maize is also growing.
11:02So we need to know which crops will be productive and resilient.
11:06That's where these high-tech tools come in.
11:08Each of these different tree species is watered automatically and sits on a highly sensitive scale that records its weight
11:14every three minutes, continuously, for weeks.
11:17That tells researchers which one uses the least water and which turns it into biomass most efficiently.
11:22So I'm going on a tour.
11:24First stop, Sicily, or its greenhouse simulation.
11:27Here I'm meeting Grasin, a researcher from Italy.
11:29She's investigating what's known as brassica plants, that's broccoli and cauliflower.
11:33Grasin is comparing three brassica varieties.
11:37Those sold in the supermarket, land races meaning traditional varieties, and their wild cousins.
11:41A lot of these plants are originated in a Mediterranean environment.
11:47They are really resilient, I think, and adapted to the extreme conditions like high temperature and low stress.
11:57That's currently being put to the test.
12:00They're only getting 30% of their usual water.
12:02In normal condition, the leaves are more apple, and the flower, yes, is more floppy,
12:10and probably start with the yellow because it's a lot of stress, so the color will change.
12:17That's what the human eye can see.
12:19But these scanners record much more, twice a day.
12:23This machine generates 3D models of the broccoli by profiling it with 15 cameras.
12:28Within seconds, it identifies its shape, size and structure.
12:31Other scans can monitor how well the plant photosynthesizes.
12:35Special sensors detect tiny changes in light emitted by chlorophyll,
12:39which reveals how efficiently the plant is turning sunlight into energy.
12:42The pots rotate fully, so every angle is recorded.
12:47Next door, we're in the greenhouse's version of Turkey.
12:50Here, Teis Stegman and his colleagues investigate a key defense mechanism of any plant.
12:55A good root system can help you survive dry spells.
12:59All of this is wheat and barley.
13:02The containers are very thin and slightly tilted, so the root grows along the glass and reveals what's usually hidden
13:07underground.
13:08The roots can grow larger than the chute.
13:12This root already does a little bit of a hide and seek in the middle, where we're missing a part.
13:18The system automatically takes pictures of each container up to five times a day to record growth.
13:24And finally, we're entering tropical India.
13:27Today's forecast, 35 degrees and humid.
13:30The room is packed with cameras.
13:33The object of their desire?
13:34Baby tomato saplings.
13:36They are just being planted into these starter cubes.
13:40During India's summer and monsoon season, plants face either hot and dry or hot and humid weather.
13:45Both can disrupt the tomato supply chain.
13:48So Alan Pauls, who facilitates research while finishing his PhD, is showing me what they're measuring to stop that.
13:56You have four sets of cameras.
13:58So you have a floor cam that can measure photosynthesis.
14:01So if you see these red dots, that is the highest.
14:05Photosynthesis indicates that the plant is healthy.
14:07You have an RGB cam that can just capture you the color picture that you see.
14:11It allows them to track if the leaves move up and down in the right rhythm.
14:15If they do, it means the plant can handle heat and humidity well.
14:19And tiny color changes can indicate that it's picked up a disease.
14:23A thermal camera shows the temperature.
14:25Like us, plants have an ideal temperature at which their enzymes function best.
14:29So if it can cool down by sweating, it can handle heat well.
14:33The key advantage, they can measure the same plant again and again.
14:37But there's an obvious question.
14:39How are you making sure that the plants, hampered in this highly controlled environment, will behave the same way outside
14:46in a dynamic, messy field?
14:48It's a million dollar question.
14:50Yeah, no, because there is no guarantee.
14:53And they can't recreate everything in here.
14:55Hail storms, high winds or differing soil temperature, for example.
14:59That can create blind spots because plants react to everything.
15:03That's why the researchers actually repeat many greenhouse experiments outside, some across the whole globe, to see if they get
15:10similar results.
15:12For that, we're moving into a fresh field of Bali close by.
15:15Here, they can control way fewer parameters.
15:18These plants are one and a half months old.
15:21Bas Jonkers is measuring them.
15:23He runs this device over the field once or twice a week.
15:26The whole process is automated, of course.
15:29So the device basically runs itself.
15:31So when you drive over these plot files, then you do the measurement for each separate plot.
15:37And the computer knows via GPS tracking where you are?
15:41Yeah. It has a one centimeter accuracy.
15:46Its imaging cabinet lowers over the plants and scans them with cameras similar to those in the greenhouse.
15:52It can capture biomass, plant density and photosynthesis.
15:58Eventually, the scans can help improve the Bali.
16:01In other experiments, researchers go a step further.
16:04They cross two varieties, one with a high yield and one that is robust, for example, and produce a lot
16:09of offspring.
16:11Each one inherits a unique, scrambled mix of DNA.
16:15When the researchers see which offspring performed best overall, they look at their DNA to find the genetic clues they
16:21share.
16:22The goal? Fast forward evolution itself.
16:25We enable researchers to screen large quantities of plants, but the actual breeding and the actual decision making is not
16:32up to us.
16:33Much of the research is funded by the Dutch government and plant breeding companies.
16:37They can then use this data to eventually launch more robust varieties, faster and more targeted.
16:45I need some food to process this now.
16:48So I'm meeting Alan for a veggie burger with mushroom patty.
16:51I'm looking at this with totally different eyes now.
16:53Turns out, my whole burger is optimized.
16:56You actually have a variety, a coarse variety of lettuce called burger leaf lettuce, where every leaf, as you open
17:03it up, is the size of a burger.
17:05So you don't need to cut it, you don't need to shape it.
17:08That's not random.
17:09It has been bred that way, along with its texture and thickness.
17:13All the scans from earlier can technically feed into that process.
17:16But most of the research is intended to improve sustainable agriculture, not build the ideal burger.
17:22But Alan also experiences skepticism about his work.
17:25I mean, especially for my family, actually.
17:27When you talk to the older generation, I definitely do feel like they don't trust it.
17:33The moment you talk about taking food into the lab, or plants into the lab, immediately what you think about
17:38is GMO.
17:39Oh my God, you're working with fake food.
17:41You're putting things that are not natural together.
17:45Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, have had their genes changed artificially.
17:50For example, by inserting a gene from a different species, like bacteria, into a plant to create new traits.
17:58In Wageningen, they work with GMOs too, but only in 5% of the experiments.
18:02It's strictly regulated.
18:04With phenotyping, they can avoid genetic modification and speed up natural processes.
18:10Just with more precision.
18:12Most of our food already comes from large-scale farming systems that rely on machinery and automation.
18:18In fact, some of what's grown here might even end up at an organic market.
18:23We grow organic lettuce here to stress them, especially on the organic domain, needs to rely more heavily on more
18:33robust plants, because they are not allowed to spray with all kinds of chemicals against diseases and insects.
18:39Looking at our food system, though, improving crops is only one piece of the pie.
18:44Research shows the world already produces enough food, even for future generations, but it's not accessible to all.
18:50Recent data suggests that up to 40% of all food is lost or wasted along the value chain, and
18:56that's one of the main causes of hunger.
18:58And adapting crops to a heating world doesn't tackle the root problem.
19:02We still need to protect soils and cut emissions for these to have a future.
19:07These farmers are flipping the script on agriculture.
19:11In southern Ethiopia, more than 500 farmers are making this shift towards solar power.
19:15For years, growing food depended on expensive diesel generators to pump up groundwater for the fields.
19:21When fuel prices rose or supplies ran out, farming became a struggle.
19:26Now solar-powered irrigation is changing the game.
19:29The farmers pay service fees to the government, who constructed the system.
19:33Farmers are now cutting their energy costs by up to 75%, growing crops year-round and producing harvests more often
19:40than before.
19:41And it's not just about food.
19:42Some families are now using small solar panels to light their homes, charge phones, and help children study after dark.
19:49Currently, six villages are enjoying solar sites like this with more already planned.
19:55As Africa's population grows and energy demand rises, could decentralized solar power become the engine of the continent's future?
20:03Do you know the expression saving for a rainy day?
20:08The idea is that you put money away for hard times.
20:12Well, they aren't that many rainy days in Windhoek, Namibia.
20:16But they do have their version of saving money.
20:20They're saving water.
20:23This city looks much like many others, but in fact it's unusual.
20:28Inhabitants drink their own wastewater.
20:31Namibia's capital, Windhoek, is one of the driest regions in sub-Saharan Africa.
20:35So wastewater is treated and reused directly, rather than first being pumped into rivers.
20:42Around 80% of the country is arid or semi-arid.
20:45It rains only about 55 days a year, while the sun shines for nearly 300.
20:50Water here has never been something people take for granted.
20:54In fact, in 1968, Windhoek became the first city in the world to turn treated wastewater into drinking water.
21:02Today, this plant provides 21 million litres daily.
21:05That's over a third of Windhoek's drinking water.
21:08The water goes through multiple treatment steps.
21:14It's filtered, purified and tested until it's safe to drink.
21:22The city's acting chief wastewater engineer explains how important the plant is.
21:28It has saved us.
21:30We are a very dry country.
21:33Every drop of water counts.
21:36So we cannot afford to let water just run away.
21:42Because of that, we have used this to make it drinkable again, so that increases our potable source.
21:49Whatever we can, we reuse again.
21:53We couldn't have survived without it.
21:56The dance would have run and empty at that stage.
21:59In a place where rain is so infrequent, whatever does fall needs to be collected and carefully stored.
22:07The safest place in Windhoek is a huge natural underground reservoir called the Windhoek Equifer.
22:12The city can store water here until it is needed.
22:16During extreme droughts, it can help keep the city supplied for almost three years.
22:23We've got a lot of sun.
22:25There's a lot of evaporation.
22:27And from surface water, we get around 50% losses per annum.
22:32So if you start with 100%, at the end of the year you'll sit with around 50%.
22:37Whereas if you put the water underground, that water stays put.
22:42While engineers work on large-scale water solutions, local communities are finding simple ways to save water at home.
22:50Community trainer Aguste Kankone from the Kambashu Institute is showing residents in the Katutura in former settlement how to reuse
22:57water that would otherwise go down the drain.
22:59Another grey water, the soapy water, when you are washing your dishes.
23:04The water is very expensive.
23:06We are taking the water from the communal tap.
23:09So now we train the people to use grey water, the water from washing the clothes.
23:15That water, we train the people to water on their trees.
23:20The grey water when we wash our dishes.
23:23Because that water is too soapy, we train the people to put on the pit.
23:30The pit is a hole in the middle of the food sector.
23:34Where we are going to produce, where the people are going to produce their own food.
23:40For Paulus Namwandi, these simple changes in how to handle water resources have made a real-life difference to the
23:46health of his garden.
23:51It was difficult for us to buy there because sometimes there's no money.
23:56And as we started to grow our own food, we are no more buying vegetables.
24:02For now it's easier for us because we can just harvest our garden and start eating.
24:11Even though most of Namibia is so dry, the far north east Mbezi region is a crucial wetland area.
24:17Other parts of the country also have wetlands that come and go with the seasons.
24:21They play a very important role not only in supporting biodiversity and tourism,
24:26but also in regulating the region's water cycle.
24:33Britta Hakenberg is the Head of Conservation at the Namibia Nature Foundation.
24:38She says climate change is making it harder to protect these natural buffers,
24:42with rainfall increasingly unpredictable.
24:44Over the last 20 years, the Mbezi region has seen its wettest and its driest year.
24:49And I think, you know, this is exactly those symptoms that we are seeing about climate change making forecasts more
24:55and more difficult to predict.
24:56And I think this is also where we see, you know, shifts in patterns of livelihoods that, for example,
25:02certain crop species don't work in certain areas because the rainfalls would not allow for that one anymore.
25:09For Namibia, drought is not a future threat. It's a reality now.
25:13And that is why wasting water is simply not a solution.
25:20You can find more innovative ideas and solutions about how to take care of the planet's resources in our Echo
25:28Drop newsletter.
25:30Bye for now.
25:31Well, and if you have got any ideas or suggestions to share, write to us at echo.dw.com.
25:39Goodbye.
25:49Bye.