The Water Footprint of the United States

Konar, Megan; Marston, Landon

doi:10.3390/w12113286

Cited by 28 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 101 publications

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“…The impact of different irrigation systems on the wheat WF in China was evaluated; results showed that micro irrigation had a lower WF compared to that of furrow and sprinkler systems. Recent studies proved that cropping pattern and cropping calendar have the potential to enhance water use efficiency, water productivity, and WF [29,[75][76][77][78]. We recommend a comprehensive national study to assess all these possible alternatives of efficient water use to find sustainable strategies to enhance the water productivity and reduce the WF of crop production.…”

Section: Practical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Water Footprint, Blue Water Scarcity, and Economic Water Productivity of Irrigated Crops in Peshawar Basin, Pakistan

Khan

Nouri

Booij

et al. 2021

Water

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Pakistan possesses the fourth largest irrigation network in the world, serving 20.2 million hectares of cultivated land. With an increasing irrigated area, Pakistan is short of freshwater resources and faces severe water scarcity and food security challenges. This is the first comprehensive study on the water footprint (WF) of crop production in Peshawar Basin. WF is defined as the volume of freshwater required to produce goods and services. In this study, we assessed the blue and green water footprints (WFs) and annual blue and green water consumption of major crops (maize, rice, tobacco, wheat, barley, sugarcane, and sugar beet) in Peshawar Basin, Pakistan. The Global Water Footprint Assessment Standard (GWFAS) and AquaCrop model were used to model the daily WF of each crop from 1986 to 2015. In addition, the blue water scarcity, in the context of available surface water, and economic water productivity (EWP) of these crops were assessed. The 30 year average blue and green WFs of major crops revealed that maize had the highest blue and green WFs (7077 and 2744 m3/ton, respectively) and sugarcane had the lowest blue and green WFs (174 and 45 m3/ton, respectively). The average annual consumption of blue water by major crops in the basin was 1.9 billion m3, where 67% was used for sugarcane and maize, covering 48% of the cropland. The average annual consumption of green water was 1.0 billion m3, where 68% was used for wheat and sugarcane, covering 67% of the cropland. The WFs of all crops exceeded the global average. The results showed that annually the basin is supplied with 30 billion m3 of freshwater. Annually, 3 billion m3 of freshwater leaves the basin unutilized. The average annual blue water consumption by major crops is 31% of the total available surface water (6 billion m3) in the basin. Tobacco and sugar beet had the highest blue and green EWP while wheat and maize had the lowest. The findings of this study can help the water management authorities in formulating a comprehensive policy for efficient utilization of available water resources in Peshawar Basin.

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Section: Practical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Water Footprint, Blue Water Scarcity, and Economic Water Productivity of Irrigated Crops in Peshawar Basin, Pakistan

Khan

Nouri

Booij

et al. 2021

Water

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“…Recent studies have proved that cropping pattern have the potential to enhance water use efficiency, water productivity, and water footprint (Nouri et al, 2020;Konar and Marston, 2020). According to Simpson (2010), agronomic practices are management processes such as intercropping, contour cultivation, minimum tillage, mulching and manuring undertaken within the cropping area.…”

Section: Agronomic Practices For Improved Soil Water Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agronomic practices in soil water management for sustainable crop production under rain fed agriculture of Drylands in Sub-Sahara Africa

Lamptey¹

2022

Afr. J. Agric. Res.

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Water is one of the very important inputs necessary for the production of food crops hence, food security and rural livelihoods are essentially linked to the accessibility of water. Eighty percent of the world's global agricultural land area is under rain-fed; this contributes to 58% of the world's staple foods. In Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA), reliance on rain-fed agriculture is high with 97% of the moisture needs of crops fulfilled mainly by water stored in the soil through rainfall. Due to highly unpredictable and sporadic seasonal rainfalls in SSA, rainfall cannot meet the requirements for crop growth and development resulting in lower crop yields with consequent food insecurity. It is important that water in rain-fed agriculture is used efficiently and effectively through interventions that conserve soil water. Thus, water productivity under rain-fed agriculture must be enormously improved particularly in SSA where the climate is dry and over 90% of agricultural activities are rainfed. However, uncertainty in rainfall projections and magnitude makes rainfed crop production a real challenge. Therefore, water management through daily field activities (agronomic practices) is a critical constituent that needs to be adopted in the current challenge of rainfall variability, climate change and expected increase demand for food. This paper highlights potentials of some agronomic practices for improved soil water content. Agronomic practices such as crop selection, mulching, fertilization and soil tillage has the potential to improve soil water content for improved and sustainable crop production.

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“…This research confirms the positive contribution of education to WFP. Education has been recently characterized as an instrument that will lower the WFP across human communities [60][61][62]. Therefore, it is essential to encourage educated farmers to participate in irrigation farming, to improve their WFP in the face of climate change.…”

Section: Yield and Water Footprintmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio-Economic Factors and Water Footprint in Smallholder Irrigation Schemes in Zimbabwe

Mwadzingeni

Mugandani²,

Mafongoya³

2022

Water

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Despite the need to grow crops with low water consumption needs, given the increasing water stress across many regions of the globe, assessments of crop water footprint (WFP) values have not received significant research attention in Zimbabwe. This unique study is the first of its kind to assess the mediation effect between socio-economic factors and crop WFP among smallholder irrigation schemes in Zimbabwe. A total of 317 farmers from three schemes in Midlands Province in Zimbabwe participated in this study. The following were the main findings in terms of the examined variables: (1) Schemes (p < 0.01), Gender (p < 0.05), and Maint (p < 0.1) all decreased WFP_Maize; (2) education showed a reduction effect on the link between scheme maintenance and WFP_Maize; (3) secondary education has a higher impact on the magnitude of Maint on WFP_Maize; and (4) Maint and WFP_Maize have a positive correlation. This study illustrates the interaction of socio-economic factors on WFP and has substantial implications for simultaneously addressing the sustainable consumption of water for crop production, food security, and malnutrition in a changing climate.

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The Water Footprint of the United States

Cited by 28 publications

References 101 publications

Water Footprint, Blue Water Scarcity, and Economic Water Productivity of Irrigated Crops in Peshawar Basin, Pakistan

Water Footprint, Blue Water Scarcity, and Economic Water Productivity of Irrigated Crops in Peshawar Basin, Pakistan

Agronomic practices in soil water management for sustainable crop production under rain fed agriculture of Drylands in Sub-Sahara Africa

Socio-Economic Factors and Water Footprint in Smallholder Irrigation Schemes in Zimbabwe

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