2nd SMARTWATER summer school is over and it was a full success!

After the first summer school within the SMARTWATER project the 2nd was also SUPER productive as it was a LIVE EVENT considering the situation regarding COVID measures.

The 2nd Summer school was held in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) from July 18th to July 22nd. The event was hosted by the University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Science, Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNSA) and organized by UNSA and UNI-BL. All participants attended the event in person, while one lecturer participated online via the Zoom link.

The 2nd Summer school focused on “Smart technologies and best management practices (technical and practical) for sustainable and eco-efficient agricultural water management”. The main objective was to present and discuss basic and advanced topics with a focus on integrated agricultural water management with particular reference to the use of innovations and advanced technologies. The event gathered different stakeholders, including university staff, students, the agro-businesses sector, farmers, decision-makers, and agricultural extension and advisory service officers.

Representative of the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Science (UNSA), Enisa Omanović-Mikličanin, Vice-Dean for International Cooperation, Science and Research of the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Science (UNSA) and Mihajlo Marković, SMARTWATER Project Coordinator (UNI-BL) expressed their welcome to all participants. According to the agenda, the first part of the first day of summer school was dedicated to the general information about the project and the status and perspectives of project implementation.

The second part was dedicated to the measuring the eco-efficiency of production.

The importance of water productivity was highlighted, representing the aspiration to increase crop yields as much as possible with as little water consumption as possible. The importance of energy consumption, mineral fertilizers and CO2 emission during agricultural production was also pointed out as a key to the eco-efficiency analysis.

A general overview of agricultural decision support systems (DSS) Blueleaf was also presented.

The second day of the 2nd Summer school brought together different theoretical and practical presentations concerning the integrated approach to agricultural water management and different irrigation systems. Also, problems in irrigation management and possible solutions in large irrigation systems were discussed. In addition, essential inputs were given about the importance of networks for controlling the quality and quantity of water for irrigation in agriculture. A walk tour in city was organized.

The end of the day was reserved for the preparation and flight planning of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). This preparation served as the basis for implementing the flight planned the day after as a part of the field trip visiting the orchard of a local producer.

On Wednesday, July 20th, participants went to the field trip to Ilijaš according to the event programme. At the farm, an experimental flight with the drone was performed with the support of course participants.

The practical presentation was given by Sabrija Čadro (UNSA) – Use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for surveying agricultural land – field exercises.

The lunch with a traditional food was organized in Ilijaš and as part of the optional excursion, some of the archaeological sites in Visoko were visited.

The fourth day started with a practical presentation based on data collected the day before on the field trip. Furthermore, students learnt about remote sensing (RS) applications to agriculture and water management.

The principles on which RS works were presented and an example of combining vegetation indices and soil water balance models was given on an example from Portugal. Remote sensing helps to improve irrigation efficiency and water productivity, which is beneficial for future climate changes.

The final session ended with the presentation of techniques and sensors for stress detection. The social event was super successful, with a lot of great food and nice music.

The last day of The 2nd Summer school was reserved for showing participants the research performed in this project at both experimental fields in Aleksandrovac (UNI-BL) and Butmir (UNSA).

After a detailed presentation of these topics and a coffee break, it was time for the Closing Ceremony where Sabrija Čadro made final conclusions and closed the working sessions of the 2nd summer school.

The certificates for the participants were awarded by Zlatan Kovačević, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Banja Luka (UNI-BL), and Muhamed Brka, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Science, University of Sarajevo (UNSA).