Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

The temporal and spatial variability of water footprint of grain: A case study of an irrigation district in China from 1960 to 2008

Author(s):

Shikun Sun ^{1, 2, 3, 4}, Pute Wu ^{1, 2, 3*}, Yubao Wang ^{2, 3}, Xining Zhao ^{1, 2, 3}, Jing Liu ^{2, 3}, Xiaohong Zhang ⁵

Recieved Date: 2012-06-20, Accepted Date: 2012-10-01

Abstract:

The water footprint theory provides a new method to assess agricultural water utilization, as it permits the comparison of crops from the perspective of water consumption amount and types, it can also reflect the water productivity of crops. Irrigation plays an important role to the food security of China. The assessment of water resource utilization during agricultural production processes will contribute to improving agricultural water management practices for the irrigation districts. The present paper provides a new calculation method to quantify the water footprint of crop. On this basis, this paper calculates the water footprint of grain in the Hetao irrigation district. Then, it assesses temporal-spatial variability of water footprint for grain during 1960-2008. Results indicate that: 1) the multi-year average water footprint of grain in Hetao irrigation district was 2.20 m³ kg^-1, which was 89.41% blue and 11.59% green. The grain production in the Hetao irrigation district mainly relies on blue water (irrigation water); 2) the regional differences of water footprint for the 5 counties in Hetao irrigation district was significant. The analysis indicated that spatial differences of climatic condition, agricultural production level and planting structure lead to the diversity of water footprint for grain among the 5 counties; 3) the water footprint of grain decreased during the study period, exhibiting a trend of 0.09 (m³ /kg) a^-1. The analysis showed that the decrease of water footprint was mainly driven by the improvement of agricultural production level, the increase of agricultural water use efficiency and the change of grain crop planting structure.

Keywords:

Water footprint, green water, blue water, grain, irrigation district, China

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Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2012
Volume: 10
Issue: 3&4
Category: Environment
Pages: 1246-1251

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