AquaCrop Crop Yield Simulation and Irrigation Planning Training Course
| Course code | SD-AA-018 |
|---|---|
| Duration | 5 days |
| Level | Intermediate |
| Category | Agriculture & Agribusiness |
| Delivery | Classroom or live online |
| Language | English |
| Certificate | Certificate of completion |
Course overview
Irrigation programmes, commercial farms, and development projects must make defensible water-allocation decisions before the season is complete. Rainfall uncertainty, variable soil profiles, limited pumping capacity, and competing crop priorities make spreadsheet estimates insufficient for assessing yield risk. AquaCrop enables practitioners to quantify how water stress affects canopy development, biomass, harvestable yield, and seasonal irrigation demand, so they can compare practical irrigation strategies rather than relying on fixed crop-water assumptions.
This five-day course develops applied capability in FAO AquaCrop for crop yield simulation and irrigation planning. Participants configure projects using climate, soil, crop, groundwater, and management data; calculate and check reference evapotranspiration inputs; select crop parameterisation approaches; run baseline and deficit-irrigation scenarios; and interpret water productivity, seasonal water balance, biomass, and yield outputs. The course also covers calibration and validation using observed field data, sensitivity testing, and the clear communication of model assumptions and uncertainty to programme managers, farmers, and investment decision-makers.
Instruction combines guided software demonstrations with structured modelling labs based on irrigated crop systems. Participants build an AquaCrop model for a realistic farm, scheme, or project case, diagnose input and simulation errors, and compare irrigation schedules under constrained water supply. They leave with a documented AquaCrop scenario workbook: input-data register, configured model files, scenario results, irrigation recommendation, assumptions log, and a concise decision briefing suitable for use with their own organisation's crop-production planning.
The course is designed for intermediate agriculture, irrigation, and development professionals who already work with crop, climate, or water-management data and need to turn that evidence into repeatable seasonal planning decisions.
Course objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Configure an AquaCrop project with climate, soil, crop, field-management, and initial-water-condition files
- Prepare daily climate inputs and verify reference evapotranspiration values using FAO-56 principles
- Parameterise a crop model using conservative, cultivar, and management-specific AquaCrop settings
- Simulate full-irrigation, rainfed, and deficit-irrigation scenarios for a defined production season
- Design irrigation schedules using soil-water depletion thresholds, application depth, and system constraints
- Calibrate and validate simulated canopy cover, biomass, and yield against observed field data
- Interpret water balance, transpiration, biomass, yield, and water-productivity outputs for management decisions
- Produce a documented irrigation-planning briefing with scenario comparisons, assumptions, risks, and recommendations
Benefits of attending
For you
- Build a portfolio-ready AquaCrop irrigation scenario and decision briefing rather than only learning software commands
- Gain confidence defending deficit-irrigation recommendations with quantified yield and water-productivity evidence
- Strengthen technical credibility for agronomy, irrigation engineering, and climate-resilient agriculture assignments
- Learn to identify weak climate, soil, and crop inputs before they produce misleading yield forecasts
- Apply a repeatable calibration and validation workflow when moving from demonstration models to local field conditions
For your organisation
- Improve seasonal water-allocation decisions by comparing yield consequences of alternative irrigation schedules before implementation
- Reduce the risk of overconfident yield projections through documented assumptions, calibration checks, and sensitivity analysis
- Standardise crop-water modelling files, input registers, and reporting across farms, schemes, or project locations
- Support investment cases for pumps, storage, canal rehabilitation, and irrigation expansion with scenario-based evidence
- Increase water productivity analysis for drought response, groundwater management, and climate-adaptation planning
Target competencies
Who should attend
- Irrigation Engineers — who must convert water availability and crop data into workable seasonal schedules
- Agronomists — who need to quantify crop response to water stress and compare field-management options
- Agricultural Project Managers — who must justify irrigation investments and production targets to funders or management
- Water Resources Planners — who allocate limited surface water or groundwater across crops and command areas
- Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Specialists — who need credible yield and water-productivity scenarios for programme evidence
- Farm and Estate Managers — who must balance yield, pumping costs, and water restrictions across production blocks
Requirements and prerequisites
Participants should have practical familiarity with irrigated or rainfed crop production and understand basic concepts including crop growth stages, soil texture, rainfall, evapotranspiration, irrigation depth, and yield measurement. Experience working with farm records, weather data, or Excel tables is expected. Participants should be comfortable installing desktop software, managing folders, and checking units in data files. Prior use of AquaCrop is not required, and advanced statistics, programming, GIS analysis, or prior crop-modelling experience are not required. Complete beginners in agriculture should first acquire foundational knowledge of crop-water relations and irrigation practice.
Training methodology
The instructor leads short technical sessions followed by guided AquaCrop labs using a common irrigated-crop case. Participants inspect climate and soil data, create and run model files, and troubleshoot implausible outputs with structured checklists. Small groups compare full and deficit irrigation strategies under a water-allocation constraint, then present the yield and water-productivity trade-offs. A calibration exercise uses observed crop data to test model performance. On the final day, each participant adapts the workflow to an organisational use case and prepares an implementation plan for data collection, modelling, review, and decision use.
Course outline
Day 1: AquaCrop foundations and model inputs
- AquaCrop structure: soil-water balance, canopy cover, biomass, and harvestable yield
- AquaCrop project hierarchy and file-management conventions
- Climate file formats for daily minimum temperature, maximum temperature, rainfall, and reference evapotranspiration
- Reference evapotranspiration quality checks using FAO-56 concepts
- Soil profile definition: horizons, field capacity, wilting point, saturation, and hydraulic conductivity
- Initial soil-water content and groundwater table specification
- Crop, field-management, and simulation-period inputs for a baseline run
Workshop: Participants create a complete baseline AquaCrop project from supplied climate, soil, and crop datasets and produce a checked input-data register.
Day 2: Crop parameterisation and model credibility
- Conservative versus cultivar-specific AquaCrop crop parameters
- Canopy development parameters and their relationship to observed crop cover
- Rooting depth, phenology, fertility stress, and field-management parameter settings
- Observed data requirements for canopy cover, biomass, yield, and soil moisture
- Calibration workflow using sequential adjustment of sensitive parameters
- Validation design using independent seasons or field plots
- Goodness-of-fit measures and residual inspection for model evaluation
Workshop: Participants calibrate a crop model against a supplied field dataset and prepare a one-page calibration record showing parameter changes and fit results.
Day 3: Irrigation scheduling and water constraints
- Irrigation method settings and application efficiency assumptions
- Fixed-interval, depletion-triggered, and user-defined irrigation schedules
- Soil-water depletion thresholds by crop growth stage
- Net irrigation requirement, gross application depth, and seasonal irrigation demand
- Deficit-irrigation timing during canopy expansion, flowering, and yield formation
- Water-allocation constraints across farm blocks or irrigation scheme areas
- Rainfall-event treatment and operational schedule adjustments
Workshop: Participants design and run three irrigation schedules for a water-limited season and produce a schedule table with seasonal demand and application dates.
Day 4: Scenario analysis and decision interpretation
- Scenario design for dry, median, and wet climate conditions
- Comparing rainfed, supplemental, full, and regulated deficit irrigation cases
- Reading AquaCrop water balance, transpiration, evaporation, and deep-percolation outputs
- Interpreting biomass, dry yield, fresh yield, and water-productivity results
- Sensitivity analysis for rainfall, soil depth, irrigation efficiency, and planting date
- Identifying parameter uncertainty and limits to model-based recommendations
- Exporting results for charts, tables, and management reporting
Workshop: Working in groups, participants analyse a constrained-water case and produce a ranked scenario comparison with a recommended allocation option.
Day 5: Operational application and irrigation decision briefing
- Using QGIS to inspect field boundaries, elevation context, and spatial input coverage
- Cross-checking crop-water estimates with CROPWAT planning outputs
- FAO-56 documentation of evapotranspiration assumptions and coefficients
- Quality assurance checklist for AquaCrop input files and simulation outputs
- Communicating yield-risk ranges and uncertainty to non-modelling stakeholders
- Data-collection plan for weather, irrigation, crop-growth, and harvest observations
- Seasonal model-update cycle and organisational governance for recommendations
Workshop: Participants complete an end-to-end capstone model and present an irrigation-planning briefing containing results, risks, data gaps, and next-season actions.
Tools & standards covered
FAO AquaCrop, QGIS, FAO CROPWAT, FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 56
A typical training day
| 08:30 – 10:30 | First session |
| 10:30 – 10:45 | Refreshment break |
| 10:45 – 12:30 | Second session |
| 12:30 – 13:30 | Lunch and networking |
| 13:30 – 15:00 | Third session |
| 15:00 – 15:15 | Refreshment break |
| 15:15 – 16:30 | Workshop and daily review |
Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.
What the fee includes
- Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
- Full course workbook and materials
- Exercise files, templates and case studies
- Certificate of completion
- Refreshments and lunch (classroom deliveries)
- Post-course application plan
- Facilitator follow-up on request
- Group rates from five participants
How you can take this course
Classroom
Scheduled sessions in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kigali, Dar es Salaam, Dubai and Cape Town.
Live online
The same facilitator and materials, delivered live for distributed teams and individuals.
In-house
Delivered privately for your team, at your offices or a venue of your choice, tailored to your context. Request a proposal.
Certification
Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.
Frequently asked questions
Upcoming sessions
New dates are being scheduled. Ask us about the next session or an in-house delivery for your team.
Ask about datesGroup of 5+?
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