{"id":5592,"date":"2026-06-16T10:02:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T10:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalearthafrica.org\/?p=5592"},"modified":"2026-06-16T10:02:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T10:02:03","slug":"tanzanias-sokoine-university-of-agriculture-adopts-open-earth-observation-tools-with-digital-earth-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalearthafrica.org\/pt\/tanzanias-sokoine-university-of-agriculture-adopts-open-earth-observation-tools-with-digital-earth-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Tanzania\u2019s Sokoine University of Agriculture adopts open Earth observation tools with Digital Earth Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 30 May 2026, Digital Earth Africa hosted a training session with the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) community, opening new pathways for students and researchers to access free, satellite-based Earth observation tools for agriculture and food security work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded in 1984 and located in Morogoro, Tanzania, SUA is one of East Africa\u2019s leading agricultural universities, with a strong focus on natural resource management, environmental science, and food systems research. The institution trains thousands of students annually, many of whom go on to work directly on the land, water, and climate challenges facing the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The session introduced participants to DE Africa\u2019s continental platform, which provides open access to processed satellite datasets covering crop monitoring, water dynamics, coastal erosion, and land degradation. Two core tools took centre stage. DE Africa Maps, for exploratory visual analysis, and the Sandbox, a Python-based environment offering ready-made notebooks for real-world analysis tasks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Universities train Africa\u2019s future geospatial workforce. For DE Africa, strengthening that pipeline means giving institutions the tools to replace costly software with free, cloud-based alternatives, so students graduate ready to tackle environmental challenges on day one. Participants left the session with direct access to DE Africa\u2019s Sandbox and Maps platforms, equipped to begin integrating open satellite data into their coursework and research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the session\u2019s most immediate demonstrations drew directly from Tanzanian landscapes. Using DE Africa\u2019s crop health notebook, participants explored vegetation monitoring over croplands in Kyela, a rice-growing district in southern Tanzania tracking crop performance patterns across growing seasons using Sentinel-2 data. The analysis showed how students and researchers can build time series data cubes, compare crop conditions across multiple sites, and generate graphs to identify trends in crop performance over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Crop health monitoring over croplands in Kyela, Tanzania, using Sentinel-2 data.<\/sup><\/sub><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The session also showcased DE Africa\u2019s Water Observations from Space (WOfS) service through a striking local example. The expansion of Lake Manyara. Satellite data spanning 2015 to 2025 revealed the lake\u2019s significant growth over the decade, a trend now linked to flooding that has affected hundreds of households, farms, and infrastructure in the surrounding area. For SUA researchers working on water resource management, the demonstration illustrated how freely available satellite data can translate directly into evidence for community-level decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lake Manyara water extent mapped using DE Africa\u2019s Water Observations from Space (WOfS) service, showing significant lake expansion from 2015 to 2025.<\/em><\/sub><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the classroom, open data access lets African researchers skip expensive technical setup and focus on developing localised methodologies and validating satellite observations against ground truth. This accelerates research that is embedded in local realities. Moreover, because universities endure beyond political and project cycles, they serve as lasting repositories of expertise, translating complex geospatial data into policy briefs that help decision-makers act on climate and food security challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Japhet J. Kashaigili, Director of the Directorate of Postgraduate Studies, Research, Technology Transfer, and Consultancy at SUA, emphasised the urgency of adopting open-access platforms like DE Africa, describing it as essential to making sense of the vast volumes of remote sensing data now available across the continent. He also committed SUA to championing free and open tools as the foundation of modern geospatial education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch the recording of the session here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 30 May 2026, Digital Earth Africa hosted a training session with the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) community, opening new pathways for students and researchers to access free, satellite-based Earth observation tools for agriculture and food security work. Founded in 1984 and located in Morogoro, Tanzania, SUA is one of East Africa\u2019s leading agricultural […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,10,35],"tags":[],"audience":[],"class_list":["post-5592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-capacity-development","category-agriculture-food-security","category-water-resources"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalearthafrica.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalearthafrica.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalearthafrica.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalearthafrica.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalearthafrica.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5592"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/digitalearthafrica.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5607,"href":"https:\/\/digitalearthafrica.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592\/revisions\/5607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalearthafrica.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalearthafrica.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalearthafrica.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalearthafrica.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5592"},{"taxonomy":"audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalearthafrica.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience?post=5592"}],"curies":[{"name":"[wp]","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}