Hunger and nutrition of the future: »Africa could feed the world«

Enlarge image

Emma Naluyima on her farm: »Many people here would like to farm, they are full of energy, but they lack the technical knowledge«

Photo: Luke Dray / DER SPIEGEL

The foothills of the city of Kampala can still be seen, even if the roads are getting worse and the potholes are getting deeper.

Below, on Lake Victoria, lies fog.

A magnificent property, fenced in with barbed wire, as is customary in this region of Uganda, rises above the small, simple single-family houses.

Emma Naluyima receives her visitors in a large office, wearing a black T-shirt and a green skirt, at first glance she looks more like a start-up entrepreneur than a farmer.

Her little daughter is crying loudly from outside, Naluyima shrugs her shoulders briefly, takes the child in her arms and takes her upstairs to the living room.

Shortly thereafter, the farmer comes back, now in blue overalls and black rubber boots, ready for a little tour of her farm.

The 42-year-old vet is a superstar on the Ugandan farming scene.

She has won numerous international awards for growing her farm from nothing into a commercially successful enterprise.

She now earns more than 100,000 US dollars a year with her farm, a fortune in Uganda.

From time to time the farm looks more like a biotech laboratory, hundreds of thousands of flies buzz under a huge net, their larvae are used as chicken feed.

Naluyima digs through the soil with her hand to see if the white maggots have grown properly.

Their liquid excretions are collected under a kind of raised bed, they later serve as fertilizer for the plants.

No substance is wasted here, says the farmer proudly.

Naluyima now even runs its own school, with a particular focus on natural sciences, and the children run their own small farm on the premises with vegetables, chickens and rabbits.

Every student has a bank account, and the proceeds from the school garden serve as start-up capital for the youngsters.

Visitors from all over the region now come to Emma Naluyima, are shown around and then take the know-how with them to their villages.

The farmer says: If you do it right, the continent could feed the world - instead of the other way around.

SPIEGEL:

You once said that you hold meetings with your pigs.

Have you spoken to them today?

Emma Naluyima:

Yes, I have.

SPIEGEL:

What was it about?

Naluyima:

Oh, we discuss and they tell me: take good care of us and we will fill your account.

I listen to them and they thank me.

I spoil her quite a bit.

SPIEGEL:

In large parts of Africa, the rising cost of living is the dominant issue. Food in particular has become significantly more expensive.

Are you better off as a farmer?

Naluyima:

Yes, as a family we are hardly affected by this, because three quarters of everything that comes to our table comes from the farm.

But at school we already notice that we have to buy groceries from outside for the children and the staff.

Because of the price of oil are also

our transport costs increased significantly.

A lot has also become more expensive on the farm, for example feed.

We don't save, the animals should continue to get the expensive feed, but we try to get it back elsewhere.

We use the cows to generate energy - through biogas from their excrements.

In this way we at least keep the energy costs low.

SPIEGEL:

Is there a trend back to agriculture because food is so expensive?

Naluyima:

Yes, definitely.

In Uganda, people spend 60 to 70 percent of their income on food.

Everyone tries to save somehow.

But there are some hurdles.

Many do not have access to land, it is very expensive.

Water is also a problem.

But those who have both at their disposal are rediscovering agriculture for themselves.

Most don't run commercial farms, but at least they have something on their plate.

SPIEGEL:

At the end of January, several African heads of state and government met in Dakar for the Feeding Africa Summit and discussed how Africa can become less dependent on food imports.

What advice would you have given them?

Naluyima:

African governments need to invest in know-how.

Many people here would like to farm, they are full of energy, but they lack the technical knowledge.

And we urgently need high-quality inputs – seeds and fertilizer, for example.

You often only get poor quality, and that has a negative effect on production.

The heads of state must also invest in better water supplies.

Rainwater is rarely collected and natural water reservoirs such as Lake Victoria in Uganda are under-tapped.

And last but not least, we have a big problem with the storage of our products.

Some years there is a bumper harvest, especially when the rains have been good.

But then we record high post-harvest losses, sometimes up to 40 percent, due to poor storage.

We urgently need silos.

Then there would still be enough to eat if the next harvest didn't turn out so well.

SPIEGEL:

Africa has the highest percentage of unused agricultural land in the world.

60 percent of the fertile areas are not tilled.

Why is that?

Naluyima:

In many places the land is simply inaccessible.

But we must not forget: 70 percent of our population are adolescents and young adults.

They don't want to live in the village, they want to live in the cities.

And even if they stay in the village, they often do not have secure access to farmland - because it traditionally belongs to their parents or grandparents, who in turn do not use it enough.

There is only one solution: life in the village must become more attractive again.

Governments need to invest in rural electrification and improve rural services.

In Germany you can find an Aldi in almost every place, we need something like that.

Then the youngsters would stay.

SPIEGEL:

The continent currently spends 45 billion US dollars on food imports every year.

Naluyima:

Yes, this is crazy, it really annoys me.

There is no mechanization in agriculture, many people do everything by hand, they don't have tractors and are therefore very unproductive.

What they grow is not even enough to feed themselves.

That's why we have to import so much.

But that doesn't have to be the case.

Africa could easily feed the world at a very low cost.

We have good weather, we have water, all the conditions are there.

Instead we have to beg the rest of the world for food, it's tragic.

SPIEGEL:

The corona pandemic and the war in Ukraine have shown how quickly everything can get out of hand and how vulnerable Africa is in such situations.

Could that have been a wake up call?

Naluyima:

Yes, that opened the eyes of many and showed: Hey, wait a minute, things can't go on like this.

At the beginning of the pandemic everything came to a standstill, there were no more container ships, no more planes.

Everyone thought at the time that Africans would surely die en masse.

But that didn't happen. Instead, many got up and looked for new solutions.

We have to build on that now.

SPIEGEL:

But climate change remains a major issue. Africa is one of the continents most affected.

Naluyima:

Yes, we are severely affected by climate change, although it is mainly caused elsewhere.

Nevertheless, we can do something ourselves, make our own contribution.

Here the sun shines almost every day, not like you do in Germany.

So we could use a lot more solar energy.

And we should at least use the cows' excrement to generate electricity and cooking gas.

I'm trying to set a good example.

SPIEGEL:

You're having dinner soon.

What is on the table and what comes from the farm?

Naluyima:

I'll definitely eat plantains.

If they're not on the plate, it's not a meal for me.

All vegetables, all greens come from us.

Even the breakfast, milk, eggs and butter come from my farm.

Most of the meat we eat, too.

I get the fish from our own pond.

I only buy a few of the things we eat from outside, things like sugar or beef, because after all we can't slaughter a cow every day.

This contribution is part of the Global Society project

Expand areaWhat is the Global Society project?

Under the title »Global Society«, reporters from

report on injustices in a globalized world, socio-political challenges and sustainable development.

The reports, analyses, photo series, videos and podcasts appear in a separate section in the foreign section of SPIEGEL.

The project is long-term and is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

A detailed FAQ with questions and answers about the project can be found here.

AreaWhat does the funding look like in concrete terms?open

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has been supporting the project since 2019 for an initial period of three years with a total of around 2.3 million euros - around 760,000 euros per year.

In 2021, the project was extended by almost three and a half years until spring 2025 under the same conditions.

AreaIs the journalistic content independent of the foundation?open

Yes.

The editorial content is created without the influence of the Gates Foundation.

AreaDo other media also have similar projects?open

Yes.

Major European media outlets such as The Guardian and El País have set up similar sections on their news sites with Global Development and Planeta Futuro, respectively, with the support of the Gates Foundation.

Did SPIEGEL already have similar projects? open

In recent years, DER SPIEGEL has already implemented two projects with the European Journalism Center (EJC) and the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: the "Expedition ÜberMorgen" on global sustainability goals and the journalistic refugee project "The New Arrivals", within the framework of which several award-winning multimedia reports on the topics of migration and flight have been created.

Expand areaWhere can I find all publications on the Global Society?

The pieces can be found at SPIEGEL on the Global Society topic page.