Thought of the global population walks in the Agricultural Sector here in africa it is over half the population that is why we decided to make a special edition the teams all about. The will find out home in south africa should farming mix for healthy soil. And how food is grown weve hydroponics in nigeria. And finally why farming doesnt have to mean deforestation. We start the show in south africa anyone whos ever been there will have noticed the thousands of kilometers of fencing that called across 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 over grazing and nondegree addiction some hadas on the boss in this trend and they are spearheading an ecological revulsion. When 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 in cuba has years of experience and of seeing how the landscape has changed since hes been grazing his animals here it has made it sound. Pitches and grass grow the wild not that much but now since we have put it you see process what. We know is that people now change even more on crazing paper and that is more quote i think. The herd is all part of the shepherding but biodiversity project it supports commercial. Livestock keeping while boosting Land Restoration on this 24000 hectare farm. Was once much greener and home to millions of until open buffalo their hooves loosen 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 hes confident that herders can help revive the whole region. Was fundamentally believe that this method of farming give space for wildlife to coexist with production i could call tree so thats 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 some monitoring the project. Over the past 2 years head researcher Janine Mcmanus and a group of students have recorded the number of plant species in selected study sites. In addition the group evaluates the earth but you take an index 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 already start picking up changes in trains with the way the heat is being grazing especially over a longer eastern period and parts of the farm and the. Green index shows up quite pronounced and we compared it to traditional farms where it isnt quite as pronounced and they seem to be quite a significant color its just looking at the pixels alone you know taking the green out of pixelization but from that alone you can really start seeing a difference. There are many positive signs. Areas that have been grazed by the hoods on now seeing thick of plant growth. Slowly while the animals are returning to the fall more than 500 antelope have been counted and even a leopard was recently sighted. 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 of us so that is there any damage to the land and to so that even the neighbors in other countries can be more inspired about what it theyre seeing this 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 years 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 modern and high tech milking robots and drones about the field are part of daily life but now a new intervention could be added a robot in the field tell us more. Its a prototype sondra but he could make life far easier for the farmers in the future but ive used to farm using fewer people and vast sea of all resources india and just 3 of the kids to help population lets have a look. Here in this field a prototype is being tested the hope is that this technology will be able to combat and improve harvests. I meet a robot that works for organic farmer trying to customs. Which glover the feast of life become a visionary in this operation because im trying to foresee the problems well have in a decade and im 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 the cause was forced or if. You can imagine drawing a picture with a green marker and a red marker and then we tell them thats 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 youre 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 its providing a new line of business for Agricultural Machinery engineers. You for listening and someday well have to feed 9 or 10000000000 people stop and that wont 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 worker anchor himself learned his trade. This is the this is the route ive just programmed. The tractor follows that route theres no need to steer satellite maps help the machinery stay exactly on calls but it also makes it possible to track employees 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 banker says farmers should still visit their animals at least once a day. Reopen. We currently have 2000 ok so feeding them by hand is inconceivable its good to have fully automated feeding. Full of the marshes find food. Back in the carriage fields the vegetable crop is being separated from the weeds by hand at least its environmentally friendly the vehicle is powered by solar panels but its 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 wont 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 theres a big demand for big visions of 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 doing everything automatically to market. 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 theres a lot of research being done into solutions for feeding the booming population while protecting the environment we visited a company in lagos that reducing the negative. Impact of farming with an innovative Hydroponic System it uses less land and little or no soil for the cultivation of Fresh Produce the frog is helping drive an agricultural revolution. These bazil possibly and little blonde suspects show theyre 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 of. Nutrients and that the plants need they got no color we group began growing hurts and vegetables in lagos 2 years ago Fresh Produce is often difficult to find into margarine 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 thats going on in the world by grain locally they could even on the cot the prices of the organic produce a valuable in the city bodies still make profits conventionally grown vegetables so other markets cost around 30 percent more than the organic ones here i buy keel spinnys new lexus most of them i imported suv get very expensive but the seas look in the groom and danny so the price and yes its very reasonable when you think about what youre getting nothing can be fresh for you know straight from from farm to mouth that whole concept nothing if its not too expensive. Its also 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 its a part of the continent that literally you know butte county people are pretty fond of them i dont trust fights. So far theyve helped 3 farmers to launch their own businesses. But not color we are also planning to expand and are currently sitting up to new c. T. Farms in lagos. Here in africa the effects of the Climate Crisis have never been more of a pirate and the farming sector is inevitably hard hit anything if you have for instance the farmers plant what are supposed to be high yield crops every year but the land is so pots that they barely have anything to harvest at the life and its institute in germany if you have one researches are learning how to boost biodiversity and revive and convert local fever righties that can withstand the drought and other environmental threats. A biologist. Is showing 3 visitors around the fields of the live in its institute of plant genetics and Crop Plant Research in central germany. So you think the 3 i work at the seed bank of the Ethiopian 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. If. The market likes the hands on part of the process here she is learning things she hopes to implement back home shes manager of the seed bank and i just. Really dont know what moral can bring so we always want to see if our worst. Where life even though we support a life of food shelter maids its all or what a base for our living. Its a question of living nothing in. Housing in conserving supporting life will take a lot of us a shows her guests the treasure trove at the heart of the institute the seed bank with over 150000 samples from crop plants from around the world gathered over a period of several decades. You know. Lovaza has been collaborating with her colleagues in addis ababa for 9 years now. The diversity of species is astounding for example data more than 9000. 00 varieties of bean in the collection alone size and half of the seed bank here in gutters leaving is one of the largest in the world or so electing mission is in all the right is have lower yields but they can cope better with changing climatic conditions theyre 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 1st hand 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. 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 robot wimps samples have since been sent back to the seed bank in. Along with seeds of other crops once endemic to ethiopia really certain strains of wheat and mustard more than 7000 in all now theyre back home and available for research and possibly cultivation we want to apply or to use all of my heroes for sustainable. Development so most of our seed. Researchers from Different Research institutes in the country and students who are studying for their ph d. In the visitors from ethiopia want to expand the testing of old a variety that 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 or thats what. Weve been europe one next report in poland many farmers industrialized. Fertilizers and pesticides are common intensive livestock farming but in recent years the mond have been changing with more and more people buying organically produced. It is a trend that we. All over the walls and in poland a country that is traditionally grounded in agriculture this growing market is providing opportunities to the increasing number of organic Dairy Farmers we went to eat some sun with cheese makers. Thanks. In eastern poland helen of ridley scott is leaving her go to head through the meadows. A couple of years ago she and her daughter isabella chose her started with a handful of animals now they take care of 300 goats. From their milk the family produces a variety of different organic cheeses that have become a hit with the locals. She added there was a time when people said oh good lord coaches know it really smells bad and cant possibly taste good. It took several years to convince poles to try some other choose besides the cows milk factory kind go to swiss practically nonexistent its only now that its become trendy. To chaska is one of the 1000 arches and 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 head tis a pasture and produces around 10 tonnes of organic tease each year. Another farm in the region the rancher a french era has a similar backstory. Sylvia schlender of age and her family specialize in organic cows and sheep cheeses. Some 15 years ago they left the city to buy a ramshackle fall. Over the years they renovated it and turned it into a flourishing cheese business. They have no trouble selling their dairy close to home after half in europe there are fewer and fewer natural rich herbs and so i think thats one reason why our cheese the such a hit not only with coles that but also some italian french or spanish people who saw huge run up 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 countrys organic cheese farmers to grow their herds even bigger but. All too often and all over the world farming goes hard in hand with different station in many african countries slashing and bonnie 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 vine to make room for new fields in. The Tropical Forest and on the religious insult on santas goat is endangered. The palmer isnt part of the forest it provides the villagers with fruit with wood to build funny with palm leaves for their roofs of the huts. But again and again the forest isnt a late clemen somebody is a farmer from start to who wants to protect the trees he sees the slash and burn method is actually harmful for agriculture although the new fields may be photo binding also causes soil erosion which is bad for the paramour a palm trees. You dont prepare for a fall. This is an example of a devastating bushfire last year someone set a fire here and then just left you can see the back of this tree bark down to the bees and that means the whole tree is now much more vulnerable the president. Knew were. A crisis Meeting Village elder christoph collie explains how serious the situation ease slashing and burning does not only destroy a forest uncontrolled fires threaten the village itself. And im very. Busy resuming a founded a committee that will look into the organisation of a troll i dont turn to villagers from our own suit to participating in order to get these bush fires under control your list is i dont want to put a bullet but the final claim and someone who doesnt think patrols will help he discovered a method on the internet which will make depleted soils for tell again this method is called hugel quota or hill culture fast a layer of 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 clemens some who tried it on his own fields and was successful. Or needed we only want to eat once a week so not a lot and if you put your hands on top of it its as if youre deep in the woods a really nice damp for its soil and thats just what the plants need to thrive everybodys whoa when you put. This settles villagers plant mostly veggie tables on their fields claman some who teaches them the forest friendly metal. Stuff which also gives them valuable compost for. Cecil said nothing decided to use the compost on her fields. Mineral my language is significant and come to pass i make compost it gives me a profit instead of having to buy for to live with these profits 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 our forest master the counterparts as well sod it. So when we news in compost to revitalize the depleted fields and make them fatten again protects the pony up on trees in so too and the whole Tropical Forest. Im afraid weve 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 said for those weak. 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. Thrown into chinas cultural revolution. The red children. Born to immigrants coming to help build a new nation. Raised to be loyal to the regime and devoted to the great elms my mouth was a donkey until the persecution of their parents it was their minds to the truth. Childhood under mao. And sistine minutes on d. W. We know this is a scary time for the coronavirus is changing the world changing a lot so please take care of yourself. Good distance wash your hands if you can stay at how we do w. Here for you we are working tirelessly to keep you informed on all of our platforms were all in this. Together to make it. Stay safe everybody. Stay safe place safe streets stay safe. This is some hope story a stubborn rice farmer from thailand. His problem tests. His credo no chemicals. Thats why i thought it was crazy. And i bought ducks. And his plan was. To step in. The state. Of. Tests and stand a chance. By systemizing the funds for. The finest production to top it off. Training successful. Tucker chatter. Starts july 27th. This is date over the news live from birthday and human rights on trial in turkey to formulators of amnesty internationals turkish broncho sentenced to jail on terra challenges will hear from a german activist cleared in the same case as arrest sparked a crisis in relations between turkey and germany also on the program americans prepare to mark Independence Day in the year of the coronavirus some say if i want to celebrate the 4th of july as always others are angry at having their freedom to have found risk