The UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC), hosted by the UNU Vice-Rectorate in Europe, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering (2iE) organized the first of a series of five regional workshops on “Capacity Development for Farm Management Strategies to Improve Crop-Water Productivity using AquaCrop” on 27-31 July 2009 in Burkina Faso.

More than 25 participants from 11 countries in West and Northern Africa, including top and mid-level managers, professionals and researchers in water and agriculture, met in Ouagadougou for five days to be trained in the practical applications of AquaCrop. This new crop model, recently developed by FAO, focuses on simulating the attainable yield in response to water, which is the key driver for agricultural production.

The main objective of the workshop was to train participants in the practical applications of AquaCrop in order to improve their skills in strategic farm management practices. The emphasis was on increasing crop water productivity in rainfed and irrigated production systems, with the ail of helping participants to identify possible paths of action towards implementation of the concept in their own field of work. The open and interactive approach adopted for this training programme was a key factor in its success.

The participants afterwards made specific suggestions, such as hosting national and regional AquaCrop workshops to advance the use and application of this tool in their own countries and/or with neighbouring countries.

More information on the workshop and main recommendations for follow-up activities are contained in the summary report of the workshop.

For more information on the AquaCrop software, see the FAO AquaCrop site.