Catherine Nakalembe

If farming was your primary source of income, and if you can't grow anything, there's not much you can do.

It's very demoralizing.

It's very overwhelming.

A lot of the countries where I work, farmers face fires, pests, diseases, droughts and floods.

If crops fail, no food is available for a lot of people who depend on what they produce.

It translates into, you know, sometimes an entire generation being undermined.

My name is Catherine Nakalembe, and I'm a satellite food security specialist.

I use satellite data to map and monitor crops and then work to make sure that information can be used by decision makers and organizations that support farmers.

I primarily focus on Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Mali, Senegal.

Last time I checked, there were over 8,000 satellites observing our earth.

They take pictures every day.

You can use those images to map what crops are growing where.

how much it's going to rain, where the system might be coming from, where it might be impacted, and how badly it might be impacted.

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.

We have tons of information, tons of data about what's happening.

We're living in a fantastic age.

We have huge advances with AI.

We're able to process a lot more data and information.