Podcast Summary

Podcast: TED Talks Daily
Episode: How satellites are supporting farmers across Africa | Catherine Nakalembe
Date: October 24, 2025
Host: Elise Hume (TED)
Guest: Catherine Nakalembe (Satellite Food Security Specialist, TED Fellow)
Featured Interviewer: Lily James Olds (TED Fellows Program Director)

Overview: Main Theme and Purpose

This episode centers on the transformative role of satellite technology in addressing food insecurity for smallholder farmers across Africa. Catherine Nakalembe shares how satellites and AI are being leveraged to monitor crops, predict disasters, and ultimately provide critical, actionable information to farmers and policymakers. The episode also delves into the challenges of “translating” high-tech data into on-the-ground action, highlighting the need for context-sensitive, humane, and locally relevant solutions. The discussion concludes with an insightful conversation on the practical barriers, the importance of lived experience, and the necessity of humility, collaboration, and perseverance.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Power of Satellites in African Agriculture

• Role of Satellites: Over 8,000 satellites now observe Earth, capturing images and weather data essential for mapping crop types, predicting rainfall, droughts, floods, and assessing impacts. (04:09)
• Accessibility: With current technology, Nakalembe can remotely identify weather events impacting any region:

  “I can just sit on my computer and tell you anywhere in the world. Rainfall, drought, floods, name it, I can tell you where it is.” — Catherine Nakalembe [04:20]

• Use Case: In 2024, after rapid flooding in Kenya, satellite assessment enabled the Ministry of Agriculture to direct resources efficiently, such as providing seeds for replanting. (06:58)

2. The Problem of Contextual Relevance

• Misaligned Models: Existing agricultural models are often based on European or American data (large, homogenous fields). African smallholder plots are diverse and small, which complicates accurate modeling.

  “In Kenya, in Uganda, in Rwanda, however, the fields are so tiny, they have so many different crops in them, and farmers do things so differently. It's like a tapestry with those images.” — Catherine Nakalembe [05:29]

• Actionable Innovation: True progress means making technology “fit the problem” rather than forcing a high-tech solution regardless of context. (07:33)

3. Ground Truthing: Bridging the Data Gap

• Local Data Collection: Nakalembe describes “Google street view for crops”—using GoPros on motorcycles and cars to photograph millions of small fields and diverse crops, vastly improving data accuracy. (05:59)
• Volunteer Involvement: The project relied on community involvement—motorcycle taxi drivers, students, volunteers—collecting over 5 million images in two weeks in Western Kenya. (06:26)

4. The “Last Mile” Problem: Data vs. Reality

• Translation Failures: There’s often a disconnect between the data scientists generate and what actually reaches or benefits farmers.

  “If you were to visit my sister who has a farm... none of what I do has anything to do with what she has to do.” — Catherine Nakalembe [13:23]

• Structural Issues: Models aren’t trained on African contexts; local realities (mixed crops, small plots) don’t appear in digitized datasets.
• Data Delivery: Even with good predictive information (e.g., a coming drought), practical on-farm decisions (when to plant, fertilizer access) may remain inaccessible to farmers.

5. The Importance of Experience and Humility

• In-the-Field Insight: Nakalembe stresses the necessity of experiencing farming contexts firsthand to understand challenges and tailor solutions.

  “If you just observe the process of what they do on a daily basis, I can figure out where my tools can be useful.” — Catherine Nakalembe [20:17]

• Diverse Stakeholder Connection: Grounded experience enables Nakalembe to connect dots across academia, policy, government, and agriculture—"bridging the messy middle" to ensure information gets to those who need it.

6. Human-Centric Approaches & Knowledge Translation

• Building Local Knowledge: Solutions must be accessible—radio broadcasts, local meetings, SMS—rather than assuming farmers use high-tech apps or platforms. (24:37)

• Collaboration Over Scale: Instead of focusing on scaling technology, Nakalembe emphasizes the importance of intentional, locally grounded collaboration and knowledge exchange:

  “We need to think about their context and then we can build from their context...” — Catherine Nakalembe [24:16]

7. Practical Barriers & Persistent Gaps

• Calibration Infrastructure: Despite new satellite missions, Africa lacks basic ground calibration stations for soil moisture, essential for accurate drought prediction. Nakalembe personally raised funds and organized four ground stations through her network—a patch compared to the thousands needed. (27:29)
• Resource Constraints: “So like, I think you asked, how do you scale me? …Sometimes I think about it, like, breaking rules, being defiant, figuring out things that otherwise would be like, why would you do that? But it's like, in the end...it's so meaningful, it's magical.” — Catherine Nakalembe [29:38]

8. On Hope and Worry

• Hope: Eager young learners, Nakalembe’s children (“my ninjas”) who keep her intellectually engaged, and growing collaboration in the field. (30:45)
• Worry: Shrinking funding and opportunities for true on-the-ground capacity building and learning exchanges, as well as the closure of informal, empowering networks. (32:29)
• Lessons Learned: Solutions must be collaborative, context-aware, and build confidence in local actors rather than simply delivering top-down answers.

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Making Innovation Fit the Problem:

  “True innovation. Not about high tech systems, but about making the technology fit the problem.” — Catherine Nakalembe [07:33]

• On Data Relevance:

  “Data is the new oil... But in reality…none of what I do has anything to do with what my sister has to do.” — [13:03]

• On Experience:

  “But creating that knowledge by working with local people is such a long process that doesn't fit a regular timeline.” — [25:59]

• On Hope:

  “There are so many young people eager and willing to learn…The other thing that gives me hope is my ninjas…they keep me on my toes.” — [30:45]

• On Urgency:

  “We really need to educate and prepare our farmers for what's coming because this is absolutely devastating…It is really important that we prepare our farmers to know that these types of things are coming.” — [34:19]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:44–08:21: Catherine Nakalembe’s TED talk—core presentation on satellites, data challenges, and innovations
• 10:23–36:25: Interview between Lily James Olds and Catherine Nakalembe—deep dive into background, barriers, context, and hopes
• 13:03–14:39: Discussion of data’s “last mile” problem and usability
• 19:10–23:14: Importance of “wearing many hats,” cross-sector connection, and the need for lived experience
• 24:16–25:59: On relevance, knowledge translation, and radio as an example of local adaptation
• 27:29–30:27: Story of grassroots calibration station network; challenges in building infrastructure
• 30:45–34:19: Sources of hope and worry, and the limits of purely technological interventions

Conclusion

This episode offers a compelling view into the real-world impact, limitations, and opportunities of satellite technology for African agriculture. Catherine Nakalembe’s work exemplifies the intersection of cutting-edge tech and frontline, human-centered problem-solving. Her vivid storytelling, grounded humility, and advocacy for collaboration and context illuminate both the possibilities and challenges of using Earth observation for equitable food security.