Women Scientists from Global South on Food Security (Part 3)

500 scientists from 60 countries gathered at the 5th Global Food Security Conference in Leuven, Belgium. Instead of saying, "you had to be there," we bring you voices and reflections from the conference. Host Matthew Kessler recorded dozens of interviews, asking experts what key messages they want to deliver to those with the power to change food systems, what are the economics of food systems transformation, and which solutions to make food systems more resilient deserve more attention.

This is Part 3 of a 3-part series, featuring six of the seven women scientists from the Global South awarded the 2023 OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Awards. This year's focus was on Food security. This episode was made with the support from ‘shout it out’, an instrument of the Global Minds program.

For more info and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/episode65

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Watch the video featuring the Award Winning scientists

Guests

• Carla Fabiana Crespo Melgar, Researcher at Universidad Mayor de San Andrés
• Eugenie Kayitesi, Prof at University of Pretoria
• Yeyinou Laura Estelle Loko, Researcher at the National University for Science, Technology and Mathematic in the Republic of Benin
  Munkhjargal Tserendorj, Researcher at Mongolian University of Life Sciences
• Renuka Attanayake, Prof at University of Kelaniya
• Haneen Dwaib, Chairwoman of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics Department at Palestine Ahliya University

Conference Organizers

• Elsevier
• KU Leuven
• Wageningen University and Research
• TABLE

Episode edited and produced by Matthew Kessler. Music by Blue dot sessions.

Transcript

Matthew  00:04

In April 2024, I visited Leuven, Belgium and spoke to scientists from across the world at the fifth Global Food Security Conference. One highlight for me was meeting six of the scientists who won the Elsevier Women in Science prize. Here's one of the winners, Eugenie Kayetisi describing the award.

Eugenie  00:21

2023 was particularly a reflection on food security. It was the seven of us that were selected from the global south and I happen to be one of them. It's been such a beautiful experience. 

Matthew  00:38

Each year this award sheds light on the unrecognized contributions of women from the Global South. 

Eugenie  00:45

I like the fact that it highlights the role that women in these countries that aren't normally projected in the scientific world as contributors to most of the work that is done.

Matthew  00:59

Each scientist comes from a different training.

Laura  01:02

My research is at the interface between genetics and entomology.

Carla  01:07

I'm biotechnologist. 

Renuka

And I'm a plant pathologist and a fungal geneticist. 

Matthew  01:13

Their research is focused on solving different regional challenges.

Munkhjargal  01:18

Top challenges of food insecurity in Mongolia, animal disease and climate change. 

Haneen  01:25

I guess the main challenge of food security is like political, social, economical insecurity that we're facing in our region. Because even if you have money, nothing is secure for you.

Matthew  01:43

Welcome to Feed, a food systems podcast presented by TABLE. I’m Matthew Kessler. This is the third and final part of our series sharing voices from the Global Food Security conference. 

In the last two episodes we discussed global challenges to food security, solutions to make the food system more resilient that deserve more attention, and a deep dive into the economics of the food system.

In this episode, we’re looking at challenges to food systems across the global South and how these scientists are tackling these challenges with their research. You’ll hear from six scientists who come from Bolivia, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Palestine, Benin and Rwanda. We’ll learn more about the research that they were recognized for, what motivates their work and the impacts their research is having in their countries and beyond.

Carla  02:45

Okay, my name is Carla Crespo. I'm from Bolivia. I work at Universidad Mayor de San Andres in La Paz, Bolivia. I'm a biotechnologist and I'm researching on microbial solutions for agriculture and climate change. Since I was a child, I was so curious and trying to discover how the things function, but then when I started the subject in biology, I wanted to understand how the processes are carried out inside the cells and how they can be exploited in a beneficial way. Now for the agriculture, um, but I also did some some work to the microbes for energy production and bioactive molecules, for instance, for pharmaceutical purposes. Among the top challenges for assuring food security are, of course as in the whole world, the climate change, and the constraints that climate change brings, for example, diseases and pests that are affecting crop productivity. 

Also, I think another big challenge in my country is education, their capabilities, for example, on plant management, there is very less investment on education to train the farmers and the people, the technicians to improve soil properties to get better productivity. This, I think, are two main factors that affect food security in my country. We have two strategies currently running in two different projects. One is looking for microbes, communities of bacteria that are able to improve the plant development as growth promoters and confer or induce resistance to drought stress for instance. So this is done in quinoa fields. So we are looking for microorganisms, quinoa itself is a drought tolerant plant. So we are looking for microorganisms that live in quinoa, that have these capacities and are able to be to use them as a bio input formulation to improve the productivity of that and other crops. 

And the other challenge to meet is the diseases. So we work also in the north in the Amazonian part, where we study coffee fields, because coffee is a commodity product in my country. So it's affected for different pathogens, and among them the fungal pathogens that cause diseases and lower the productivity. So we find bio controllers that are green solutions against these pathogens. So we can not only study the Bolivian diversity, but given application of these microbes that are being discovered. With the quinoa, for example, we are working with rural communities. So we go to these families, they are indigenous families that are dedicated to this production. We had some workshops with them, their ancestral knowledge has been supporting the quinoa production till now. So they have resilience mechanisms. So we are trying to with the scientific knowledge, understand these mechanisms, or validate them and evaluate how really they are improving or not the quinoa production.

Matthew  06:42

Next up is Eugenie Kayetisi,  who at one point in her life thought to become either a doctor or a food scientist.

Eugenie  06:54

So as an African scientist, I felt it's like a calling for me to do something about it. 

My name is  Eugenie Kayetisi. I'm originally from Rwanda. But I currently work in South Africa at the University of Pretoria as an associate professor. I'm a food scientist by training. I specialize in food biochemistry. So my research is focused on African grains, grains that are indigenous to Africa. So your sorghum, millet, and other important legumes. Food Insecurity is very personal to me. I grew up a child refugee. So I moved three different countries before I turned seven. And so as I grew up, I felt that I needed to do something that would add value, and food security because it had been personal, had impact on me. When I decided to go to university and study, option one was become a doctor and heal people. But at that time, my home country was just out of a genocide and agricultural systems were mess. Hunger was a real issue. So as a person navigating the world, choosing which career to take, and what contribution I make as a 14 year old girl, and eventually, in my early 20s, I chose agriculture because it was the heart and the soul of the country. And as I dug deeper into the issues of Africa as a continent, I felt this really is at the forefront of what we deal with on daily basis.

My research is still driven by that sense of making contribution and research into grains and developing products on the African continent using African ingredients. Tackles issues of affordability and access to food, particularly because I'm using technologies, although advanced in terms of the analytical work that we do, and understanding the biochemistry of um processes such as fermentation that have implication on nutrition, but also on health. We see a drive into gut health and how it relates to other forms of health. So my research I believe in that context is actually contributing beyond the African continent and rather to the general understanding of what is food and how does it link to other systems, health systems, economic systems. One of the recent projects that we've been involved in my team and collaborators in the US in Jamaica was global nutritious composite flour project. The idea of the project was to use three key ingredients. So we used maize, which is predominant grain consumed in Africa, but I also fermented maize, the reason why we did that is maize, like other grains has what we refer to as antinutritional factors, components in that grain that inhibits bioavailability of nutrients. So when we do ferment in this case, we saw significant improvement in iron bioavailability, which  forms part of the hidden hunger issue that we see across Sub Saharan Africa. We use bean flour to improve the protein quality and content in the composite flour and used orange sweet potatoes as a source of vitamin A. In essence, the project is addressing three key deficiencies, protein, iron and vitamin A, which is an issue in most countries and what we did we develop products that would go on to the market with nutrition at the back of our mind.

Laura  11:38

Okay, my name is Loko Yêyinou Laura Estelle. I'm a lecturer, I am researcher at the National University for science, technology and mathematic in the Republic of Benin. I'm entomologist but my research is at the interface between genetics and entomology is focused on the development of alternative method to protect crops I explore the use of biological control and also the genetic control, varietal resistance of crop. My research is very important in Africa because a lot of smallholder farmers don't have money, money to pay pesticide. So for me is necessary to develop alternative accessible to the smallholder farmers. There are several constraints for crop production in my region. But for me, the proliferation of insect invasive insect pest is the most important because now for example, we have the invasion of foreign army worm, which come from America, which caused enormous losses, mice production. So now the problem is the fact that the farmer don't have any solution to fight, this pest and use a lot a lot of chemical pesticides, chemical pesticide have a serious impact negative impact on on the environment and also on human health. I do a survey in 16 village around my country in Benin, I search the plant used by the local projects at the product store and actually I have listed  33 plant, insecticidal plant, and I use this plant, I test this plant in the laboratory to form the more insecticide and use it in the form of bio pesticide.

Matthew  13:49

One thing I'm so impressed with is how these scientists connect they're very specific research skills to tackle incredibly urgent challenges that both their region and the world is facing. Here's an example from Mongolia.

Munkhjargal  14:05

My name is Munkhjargal Tserendorj. I am a vet. I am a researcher at the Institute of veterinary medicine in Mongolia’s University of Life Sciences Mongolia. In my country, in Mongolia, livestock consists of 16% of for gross domestic product and providing meat and milk for domestic consumption. Top challenges in food insecurity in Mongolians, animal disease and climate change. So in 2009 in 2010, Mongolia lost 9.5 million animals that is 22% of its livestock. We conducted a number of national and international projects. Stringent capacities in diagnosis and treatment of animal diseases especially tick transmitted disease. we developed early diagnostic methods in parasitic infection, for example neosporosis paralysis, which is caused by tissues parasite, early diagnostic methods that is very important.

Matthew  15:32

Next, we move from livestock to crops from Mongolia to Sri Lanka.

Renuka  15:38

My name is Renuka Attanayake. I'm from the University of Kelaniya, Department of Plant and molecular biologist Sri Lanka. And I'm a plant pathologist and a fungal geneticist. That means I'm working on plant diseases, mainly crops, vegetables and fruits, and what makes plants sick, and to find the causes and remedies basically. 
When I was a child, my father was a farmer. So he was growing rice, and chili pepper. So as a kid, I remember walking through these paddy fields and chilli gardens. Once the harvest is there, we used to sort them with the ripened ones, and unripened ones so that you can sell them in different prices. I remember that we were throwing some bad ones. Now I know that is a disease called anthracnose. 
And then, as a paddy farmer, I have seen how my father has been spraying chemicals and pesticides and fertilizer. And his belief was that the more you apply, you get more result. So later on, only I realized that when I'm in science, I realized that that's not the case. So it has to be managed.  This is something that triggered me like this has to have a solution. 
I would say top challenges is like price fluctuation like sometimes of the year extreme high price for the fruits and vegetables, which is bad for the consumer. On the other hand, sometimes of the year, it's really, really low price for the food. So it's highly fluctuating. And it's because we don't have a nice monitoring system, we don't have a data management system, cohesive system. And another thing is plant diseases. So especially when we don't have a rapid detection diagnostic technique, state of the art techniques, so it's too late by the time we find the cause and the crop is gone by then.

We have to move away from the traditional techniques. That is what I do at the moment. We already have set up some PCR based techniques for some crop species and some population genetics level studies for some particular pathogens. 

In one case, we found a particular pathogen, which lives in soil infecting cabbage and the pathogen name is sclerotinia. So it can live in soil for 8-10 years. So once it is in the soil really can't do anything. So we tested a particular technique called anaerobic soil disinfestation. And it's really successful in Sri Lanka. 

Another one is strawberry disease. So there's one disease thar is a very severe problem in strawberries, and we get the help from the US a friend in mine. We got the help for these rapid DNA diagnostic techniques, because we didn't have it in Sri Lanka. So within a particular time, we could navigate everything like okay that it's not the case. Maybe this is the case. Likewise, we were able to tackle the problem now. I'm really happy about it after now we are trying to find a better fungicide regime for the disease. Yeah, those are some of the successful stories I would say. Still more to do actually, there's a lot more to do.

Haneen  19:36

My name is Haneen Dwaib. I'm from Bethlehem, Palestine. I'm an assistant professor and I serve as the chairwoman of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics department at Palestine Ahliya University in Bethlehem. My area of research is focused on testing data interventions and its effectiveness on tackling acquisition inflammation in early pre diabetic stages to prevent cardiovascular diseases and diabetes formation. Also we focus on the sex differences part of how these data interventions might change between sexes. When I talk about my research, which is more clinical nutrition, people might think that it's irrelevant to food security, but actually it is in the core of food system and food security because like, we're tackling that hidden malnutrition hidden hunger, which is the macronutrient and micronutrient deficiency related to malnutrition, which is induced by over eating and overnutrition not just like underweight and undernutrition. So currently, as you know, in Palestine, there's a war and there's a famine. So people in 2024 are dying from human induced, like famine. So the challenges to food security in Palestine right now is stability because like economical, financial, social, political stability is a huge obstacle against having food security. Even if you have money right now, especially in Gaza, it's not enough to secure like good nutritious meals to your children. So on the long term effect, and the short term effects will affect the future generation, especially the future generation on health wise, and on macro and micronutrient level as well. They will face multiple deficiencies. So the impact that my research is having is that we're trying to apply practical, cheap and effective solutions to an early stage of pre diabetes that will prevent the development of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. First of all, we are lowering the cardiovascular and diabetes incidence in Palestine. Also, it will reduce the cost of managing these diseases that they are chronic and lifelong. So this is what I'm hoping for is that my research can be applied, and then we'll have the practical impact.

Matthew  22:15

To wrap up, what message do these scientists have for those who have the power to transform or shape our food system?

Carla  22:23

If I can talk to a policymaker.

Renuka  22:25

So if I can meet the decision maker or policymaker, yes, what they should do.

Eugenie  22:31

We have to get away from the silo thinking boxed in perspective, then rather look at a combined, collective effort, a system's approach, if you may. 

Renuka  22:43

My opinion, this should be a holistic approach. You shouldn't tackle one thing at a time.

Carla  22:49

I could tell him that subsidizing is not the only solution.

Laura  22:55

Yes, in my country  in Africa, I will propose that policymaker develop a political strategy to impact really impact the smallholder farmer.

Renuka 23:07

Particularly a country like Sri Lanka, we should have a state of the art rapid disease diagnostic techniques and data management system.

Laura  23:16

Also develop agricultural policy, including funding for research to resolve the local constraints. 

Haneen  23:26

First of all, they should listen to science if we learn something from COVID experience is that scientists are more important than football players, more important than actors, actresses, singers. So we are more important, we need more money, we need more fund, we need more visibility, we need more like support. To do our research and to implement our research. It's not enough just to do research, we need to implement it.

Matthew  24:01

We hope you enjoyed listening to this mini series, sharing insights and reflections from the fifth Global Food Security Conference. If you'd like to see a video featuring the scientists, and find out more about TABLE’s role in the conference, you can find the link on the show notes to the episodes webpage at table debates.org. 

To learn more. Next week, we're going to return to the nature season of Feed. If you've only listened to these episodes, and the nature season of Feed makes no sense to you. First of all, welcome. Second, this podcast that I host speaks with food system experts from across the world who hold different views about what's a good future for food. In our latest season, we look at different ideas about how natural our food and farms should be. Some topics of recent episodes include cultivated meat, gene editing and plants. What's a natural diet and can we eat her way out of the ecological messes we've created?

And now onto the credits. Thanks to you for listening. A huge thanks to the women you've heard from in this episode. We’ll link to more information about them and their research on our website. This series is made with the support from Shout it out, an instrument of the global minds program. The global food security conference organizers are Elsevier, KU Leuven, Wageningen University and TABLE. TABLE is a collaboration of the University of Oxford Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Wageningen University in the Netherlands, University of the Andes in Colombia, National Autonomous University of Mexico and Cornell University. This episode was produced by me, Matthew Kessler and Jackie Turner. It was edited by Matthew Kessler, music by Blue Dot sessions. We'll speak to you soon.