Dr. Hadi Jaafar Invited to Present AgSAT at Google’s Geo for Good Lightning Talks in Agriculture
Dr. Hadi Jaafar, Associate Professor of Irrigation Engineering & Water Management and Chairman of the Department of Agriculture, was invited by the Google Earth Engine Team to present AgSAT, the mobile application for smart irrigation calculates crop water requirements in near real time by using satellite imagery and weather data.
AgSAT is powered by Google Earth Engine and is currently in use by research scientists, farmers, agricultural producers, and irrigation managers in many countries.
During the talk which was streamlined live on April 18, 2022, Dr. Jaafar stressed that water management is a key concern for water-scarce regions of the world, and that most farmers do not use Evapotranspiration (ET) data for irrigation. This leads to unnecessary energy costs, over-pumping, and irrigating at sub-optimal times.
AgSAT helps farmers irrigate more precisely, increases crop yield, and guides decision-making in water allocations. The smart irrigation app can be adopted by ministries and municipalities, farmers, irrigation engineers, water authorities, large and small farming enterprises, non-governmental organizations to build on their adaptive capacities, hence improve irrigation practices.