The Government of Angola is developing a policy to diversify the country’s economy, strongly dependent on the income of the oil sector. Agriculture is considered one of the priority sectors to be developed. A favorable climate and a relatively high availability of water resources and fertile soils, can lead Angola to become one of the leaders in agricultural production of the African continent.

With the objective of increasing agricultural production and productivity and favoring investment and innovation in related businesses, the present project arises: a nexus between policies, practice and knowledge. The project “Knowledge-to-Knowledge” (K2K), funded by the Dutch government and managed by the University of Wageningen, aims to strengthen and enhance the capacity of the main Angolan knowledge institutions in agricultural sciences, to establish a strong relate between knowledge and practice. To do this, the development of skills in Geographic Information Technologies of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences (FCA) of the José Eduardo dos Santos de Huambo University (UJES) in Angola was proposed.

Among other tasks, a program is established with an approach based on “Train the Trainers” (TtT), with the aim of developing the knowledge and skills of the FCA staff. After the development of the TtT program, the staff of the University should be able to:

  1. Establish a University program of training in Remote Sensing
  2. Develop and maintain the necessary teaching material
  3. Initiate and carry out its own research program
  4. Develop small courses aimed at the agricultural sector

To achieve this, FutureWater gave two weeks of training in Remote Sensing and Agricultural Services at the José Eduardo dos Santos University, in collaboration with the University of Wageningen, the Netherlands. The training concluded last Friday, June 22, with the delivery of diplomas to the participants.

Alberto de Tomás, hydrologist and Remote Sensing expert at FutureWater, provides the training course in Angola.