Catherine Nakalembe

The fifth is people.

We need to see people on the ground as accelerators, as people who are able to connect the real information that we're providing with real solutions.

Improved seeds, irrigation infrastructure, et cetera.

And I said five, but I have one more.

and it's the most important, is how we evaluate impact.

Our combined effort cannot be measured by the number of projects or our model accuracies.

It should be measured by that extra income that helps Mary and uplifts her to become a resilient household.

The technology to feed the world exists.

Now we need to bridge this translation gap and move from data to decision and prediction to prevention.

Thank you.

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.