As a eager badminton participant Ugandan Catherine Nakalembe needed to check sport science at college however a failure to get the required grades for a authorities grant set her on a path that led her to Nasa and profitable a prestigious meals analysis prize, writes the BBC’s Endurance Atuhaire.
When Dr Nakalembe tried to clarify to a Karamojong farmer in north-eastern Uganda how her work utilizing pictures taken from satellites tons of of kilometres above the Earth pertains to his small plot, he laughed.
Whereas she makes use of the high-resolution pictures in her pioneering work to assist farmers and governments make higher selections, she nonetheless must get on the bottom to sharpen up the information.
In different phrases, from house you can’t inform the distinction between grass, maize and sorghum.
“By way of a translator, I instructed the farmer that after I have a look at the information, I simply see inexperienced.
“I had printed an image, which I confirmed him. He was then in a position to perceive that… you should see the farm bodily to make these distinctions,” the tutorial tells the BBC.
She is a softly spoken girl with a radiant manner, and it’s laborious to image her trekking for hours within the warmth of semi-arid Karamoja, seeking to tease out the granular distinctions that may solely be noticed on the bottom.
That is particularly vital in farming areas dominated by small holders who could also be planting totally different crops at totally different occasions, resulting in an enormous variety of variables. That complexity makes it virtually unattainable for many authorities to watch.
Dr Nakalembe, an assistant professor on the College of Maryland’s geographical sciences division within the US, makes use of the satellite tv for pc knowledge to check agriculture and climate patterns.
That data is mixed with knowledge gathered on the bottom in regards to the crops and their situation to construct a mannequin that learns to recognise patterns to assist make predictions.
It was this that gained her the 2020 Africa Meals Prize alongside Burkina Faso’s Dr André Bationo for his work on fertiliser.
The scientist, who additionally heads the Africa part of Nasa’s meals and agriculture programme, explains: “From the air, you’ll be able to see which space is built-up, naked, has vegetation or water.
“We’re additionally in a position to inform what’s cropland or what’s forest. As a result of we’ve got a 30-year file of what cropland seems to be like, we are able to inform what’s wholesome, what is not or which half has improved.”
‘A lifeline for rural households’
Utilizing data gathered on the bottom by researchers or despatched in by farmers themselves, she will then distinguish between crop sorts and create a map that reveals whether or not the farms are thriving in comparison with the identical crop elsewhere in that area.
The mannequin has been utilized in locations just like the US the place mechanised farming takes place on an industrial scale. The data may also help inform selections about when to irrigate or how a lot fertiliser ought to be used.
However even a farmer in Uganda, or elsewhere on the continent, utilizing only a hoe and dealing for lengthy hours on their small plot will discover this data worthwhile.
“Distant sensing makes it doable to watch giant swathes of land utilizing freely accessible knowledge.
“You can provide a forecast; in the event you mix satellite tv for pc estimates of rainfall and temperature, you’ll be able to inform that it’ll rain within the subsequent 10 days and farmers ought to put together their fields. Or if there isn’t any rain, they do not should waste their seeds and may wait a couple of weeks,” Dr Nakalembe says.
In a lot of the continent, the place farms are sometimes small fragmented plots removed from sources of knowledge, this knowledge will be translated into local-language textual content messages, radio programmes or handed on by way of agricultural extension employees.
It’s also proof that governments can use to plan for catastrophe response in case of crop failure or flash floods, and save communities from famine.
Early analysis by Dr Nakalembe enabled 84,000 individuals in Karamoja keep away from the worst results of a extremely variable local weather and an absence of rainfall.
“She labored with us in 2016, to develop instruments that predict the incidence of drought,” says Stella Sengendo, who works on catastrophe threat within the prime minister’s workplace.
“We use these to estimate the variety of households which are prone to be affected by extreme dry spells. We then developed a programme that extends funds to households, by way of the native authorities.
“Locals do public works and earn cash throughout the dry season. They save 30% and use 70% for each day consumption,” Ms Sengendo explains.
The 5,500 Uganda shilling ($1.50, £1.12) a day is a lifeline for households in a area that has just one harvest season a yr. And about 60% of those employees are ladies, who, research have proven, undergo the worst results of local weather change.
Unintended environmental scientist
Introduced up within the capital, Kampala, by a mom who runs a restaurant and a father who’s a mechanic, Dr Nakalembe by no means pictured herself working with satellites.
She performed badminton together with her sisters and needed to pursue sports activities science as a level, however with out the required grades to get a authorities grant, she turned to environmental science at Makerere College.
Having by no means left Kampala aside from the occasional household occasion, she utilized to work with the Uganda Wildlife Authority to earn credit for her course.
“Mapping appealed to me. I went to Mount Elgon within the east. I nonetheless have photos from my very first area work as a result of it was actually thrilling,” she says, beaming.
The Nasa scientist, who now travels all through Africa coaching authorities departments on easy methods to develop meals safety programmes, went on to Johns Hopkins College for a masters in geography and environmental engineering.
She says: “I’ve at all times had the identical private assertion: to realize information and apply it again residence.
“The PhD program on the College of Maryland allowed me to get into distant sensing, however most significantly, come and work in Uganda and across the continent.”
The trailblazing researcher additionally mentors younger black ladies to encourage them to get into environmental sciences.
“Within the diaspora, I’m going to conferences and I’m the one one who seems to be like this. It feels lonely when it’s a new nation or house.
“In East Africa, I meet lots of people with whom we are able to share experiences and our struggles. I want to see extra black ladies on this group,” says Dr Nakalembe, sounding decided.
The information that she had gained the 2020 Africa Meals Prize this September got here to her in a patchy telephone name. She didn’t know that she had been nominated, and puzzled why her colleagues insisted she stored her telephone shut.
When the decision lastly got here, she was requested to carry for former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who barely bought by way of the congratulations earlier than the road was disconnected.
“It was like going to the hospital for a headache after which being instructed you are having a child.
“Once I referred to as my household, my sister thought I used to be being scammed. My mom mentioned the identical factor she at all times says every time I obtain one thing: ‘Webale kusoma’ (‘thanks for finding out laborious’ in Luganda),” she says.
The euphoria from the win has clearly but to put on off, judging by the large grin with which she talks in regards to the prize.
“Think about, I now have a Wikipedia web page.
“Once I introduce myself these days, I’ve to recollect to say: ‘I’m additionally the 2020 Africa Meals Prize Laureate’. And I’ve bought my large trophy which weighs about 5kg. So, I do know I’m not dreaming,” she quips.