FutureWater has kicked off a new RVO project: A Practical Farmers’ Toolkit. The project is ongoing in 2021 and the consortium consists of Dutch and Egyptian partners. The Dutch partners are Delphy, Irriwatch, and HiView. Among the Egyptian partners are Cairo University and Bio Oasis.

​Water management in Egypt needs to cope with the increasing water scarcity issues. Especially the agricultural sector, being the largest water consumer, is pressured to decrease its water demands. This project and the proposed capacity-building activities are perceived as game-changing in bringing innovative remote sensing tools to farmers and increasing the adoption of the tools amongst the farming community, ultimately increasing water productivity in the agricultural areas of Egypt.

​After conducting online lectures in April, FutureWater and HiView traveled to Egypt in the month of July and August to supply workshops in the context of the so-called Field School Days. The workshops entailed, amongst others, an introduction to the use of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) for agricultural purposes. Four different irrigation schemes, scattered around Cairo in a circle of 120 km, have been visited. The workshops had a very practical bias. Several activities were undertaken during the Field School Days: capturing aerial pictures (with the help of a 6 m long telescopic stick as drone flights were prohibited), on-the-fly processing, and finally the practical application of the crop stress maps.

Participants were very content with the workshops. At the same time, it has been an outstanding opportunity for FutureWater and HiView to link up with farmers in Egypt.