Sunday Pick: Tech Solutions (#1): The affordable tech that will revolutionize farming (with Samir Ibrahim and Josephine Waweru)
This episode of TED Tech, part of a special mini-series recorded at the TED Countdown Climate Summit in Nairobi, explores how affordable solar-powered water pumps are transforming smallholder farming. Host Cheryl Dorsey speaks with Sun Culture CEO Samir Ibrahim about building a farmer-centered business that has driven down the cost of solar irrigation through both engineering and business model innovation, while navigating investors and climate-related priorities. Coffee farmer Josephine Waweru then shares how installing a solar pump on her Kenyan farm solved her water challenges, enabled her to expand her crops and income, and inspired her to encourage other farmers and young people to see farming as a viable, growth-oriented business.
How satellites are supporting farmers across Africa | Catherine Nakalembe
Satellite food security specialist Catherine Nakalembe explains how she uses satellite imagery and machine learning to map and monitor crops across African countries, and why many existing models fail when applied to smallholder farms. In a follow-up conversation with TED Fellows Program Director Lily James-Olds, she describes the gap between powerful data systems and farmers' realities, the importance of ground-based data and local context, and her efforts to build practical, human-centered ways to turn drought and flood information into action. She also shares a grassroots project to establish soil moisture calibration stations in Africa and reflects on the institutional and financial barriers, as well as the sources of hope that keep her pursuing this work.
How to pull the emergency brake on global warming | Mohamed A. Sultan
Host Elise Hu introduces a TED Talk by sustainability strategist Mohamed A. Sultan about the urgency and opportunity of cutting methane emissions, especially across the African continent. Sultan explains how methane from landfills, fossil fuels, and agriculture significantly drives global warming, and highlights concrete African examples in waste management, energy, and rice cultivation that reduce methane while improving public health, jobs, and food security. He argues that better governance, finance, and development models can simultaneously build resilience, advance economic development, and lower methane emissions worldwide.