February 17th, 2026
Within the framework of the ENRUC project webinar series, The Faculty of Spatial Development and Infrastructure Systems successfully organized the online webinar titled “Digital Agriculture and Model–Data Integration for Resilient African Croplands” on 17 February 2026. The webinar attracted participation from all over Nile Basin riparian countries, including researchers, academics, and professionals working in agriculture, environmental sciences, and related disciplines.
The 90-minute session featured two distinguished presentations:
- Dr. Ahmed Elnaggar (IHE Delft) presented “Digital Twins for Kenyan Agriculture: Operationalizing WaPOR for Rice and Crop Irrigation”, demonstrating innovative decision-support tools that leverage open-access satellite data (FAO WaPOR) and Python modeling to provide daily irrigation prescriptions. His presentations covered tools such as the Rice Paddy Advisor and Crop Water Advisor, designed to optimize irrigation practices for flood-based rice and upland crops in Kenya.
- Dr. Harison Kipkulei (University of Augsburg) presented “Smarter Cropland Insights: Integrating Agroecosystem Models and Big Data to Strengthen Food Security in Data-Scarce Regions”, showcasing how agroecosystem models integrated with remote sensing data enable detailed cropland condition assessments and support climate-smart agricultural decisions in the Nile Basin and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Participants from diverse professional backgrounds, including doctoral candidates and researchers, actively engaged with the topics and expressed interest in the application of the cutting-edge methods to improve agricultural resilience and sustainability in data-scarce regions.
This webinar underlines ENRUC’s dedication to fostering knowledge exchange and building capacity for digital and data-driven agricultural solutions that address the challenges faced by African croplands.mentum and build resilience in regional water management practices.
Recording of the training:
1st presentation: Dr. Kipkulei
2nd presentation: Dr. Elnaggar