The main objective of this study was to estimate the different components of the water footprint for sugarcane production under the conditions of free (FD) and controlled drainage (as an on‐farm strategy for agricultural water management, CD) in an arid and semi‐arid region in the south‐west of Iran (Khuzestan Province). The different components of the water footprint (green, blue and grey) were assessed based on on‐farm measurements. The total amount of water footprint for sugarcane production in the study area stood at 250 m3t−1 in the treatment FD. Of this, 12.2, 71.8 and 16.0% were of the green, blue and grey water footprints, respectively. By using CD this value was reduced to 203 m3t−1 in total, of which, 13.7, 76.8 and 9.5% were of the green, blue and grey water footprints, respectively. This decrease in the amount of water footprint seems to be mainly a result of an increase in crop productivity (due to soil condition improvement), reduction of the in‐ and outflow of the sugarcane farm and also reduction of nitrate losses in the CD treatment. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.