Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-22dnz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T23:29:57.997Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Irrigated farming systems: using the water footprint as an indicator of environmental, social and economic sustainability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2018

F. Altobelli ,
O. Cimino ,
F. Natali ,
S. Orlandini ,
V. Gitz ,
A. Meybeck  and
A. Dalla Marta
F. Altobelli*
Affiliation:
Research Centre for Agricultural Policies and Bio-economy – Council for Research in Agriculture and the Agricultural Economy Analysis (CREA), 00198 Roma, Italy
O. Cimino
Affiliation:
Research Centre for Agricultural Policies and Bio-economy – Council for Research in Agriculture and the Agricultural Economy Analysis (CREA), 00198 Roma, Italy
F. Natali
Affiliation:
Department of Agrifood Production and Environmental Sciences, University of Florence, 50145 Firenze, Italy
S. Orlandini
Affiliation:
Department of Agrifood Production and Environmental Sciences, University of Florence, 50145 Firenze, Italy
V. Gitz
Affiliation:
Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia
A. Meybeck
Affiliation:
Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy
A. Dalla Marta
Affiliation:
Department of Agrifood Production and Environmental Sciences, University of Florence, 50145 Firenze, Italy
*
Author for correspondence: F. Altobelli, E-mail: filiberto.altobelli@crea.gov.it
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the current study, for the main crops cultivated in the Campania region (South of Italy), three indicators were proposed and analysed. The blue water footprint (WFb), which gives an indication of the impact of irrigation on the water resource; the gross margin WFb (GMWFb), describing the economic productivity of irrigation; and the job WFb (JWFb) that expresses the social value of blue water in terms of job opportunities. Results confirmed that water applied through irrigation is much higher compared with crop requirements. In terms of GMWFb, silage maize, maize and alfalfa had the highest values, while olive, potato and tomato had the lowest. Concerning JWFb, silage maize was the crop with the highest value. Even though a deeper analysis should be done in terms of added value in the entire supply chain, the results indicated a clear difference between the crops related to animal feeding (alfalfa, maize) and the other crops taken into consideration. In fact, for the former, both the GMWFb and the JWFb achieved their highest values. Results showed that for certain irrigation volumes and for certain crops, the economic and social impacts are very different and the choice of an irrigated crop rather than another has different repercussions in terms of environmental and socio-economic sustainability. The proposed indicators would allow water managers and farmers to assess and compare production systems in terms of the different benefits that their use of water can provide.

Keywords

Accounting waterirrigation managementsustainability indicators
Type
Crops and Soils Research Paper
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 156 , Themed Issue 5: Themed Issue: Assessment and monitoring of crop water use and productivity under present and future climate , July 2018 , pp. 711 - 722
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, RG, Pereira, LS, Raes, D and Smith, M (1998) Crop Evapotranspiration – Guidelines for Computing Crop Water Requirements. Irrigation and Drainage Paper 56. Rome, Italy: FAO.Google Scholar
Chiu, YW, Walseth, B and Suh, S (2009). Water embodied in bioethanol in the United States. Environmental Science and Technology 43, 2688–2692.Google Scholar
Chouchane, H, Hoekstra, AY, Krol, MS and Mekonnen, MM (2015) The water footprint of Tunisia from an economic perspective. Ecological Indicators 52, 311–319.Google Scholar
Dalla Marta, A, Mancini, M, Natali, F, Orlando, F and Orlandini, S (2012) From water to bioethanol: the impact of climate variability on the water footprint. Journal of Hydrology 444–445, 180–186.Google Scholar
FAO (2015) FAOSTAT. Rome, Italy: FAO. Available at http://faostat.fao.org (Accessed 10 December 2010).Google Scholar
FAO (2016) AQUASTAT. Rome, Italy: FAO. Available at http://faostat.fao.org (Accessed 23 July 2018).Google Scholar
Garrido, A, Llamas, MR, Varela-Ortega, C, Novo, P, Rodríguez-Casado, R and Aldaya, MM (2010) Water Footprint and Virtual Water Trade in Spain. Policy Implications. New York, USA: Springer.Google Scholar
HLPE (2015) Water for Food Security and Nutrition. A Report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security. HLPE Report 9. Rome, Italy: HLPE. Available at http://www.fao.org/3/a-av045e.pdf (Accessed 29 May 2018).Google Scholar
Hoekstra, AY, Chapagain, AK, Aldaya, MM and Mekonnen, MM (2011) The Water Footprint Assessment Manual: Setting the Global Standard. London, UK: Earthscan.Google Scholar
ISTAT (2013) Atti del 6° censimento generale dell’agricoltura 2010. ISBN: 978-88-458-1779-3.Google Scholar
Jimenez Cisneros, BE, Oki, T, Arnell, NW, Benito, G, Cogley, JG, Döll, P, Jiang, T and Mwakalila, SS (2014) Freshwater resources. In Field, CB, Barros, VR, Dokken, DJ, Mach, KJ, Mastrandrea, MD, Bilir, TE, Chatterjee, M, Ebi, KL, Estrada, YO, Genova, RC, Girma, B, Kissel, ES, Levy, AN, MacCracken, S, Mastrandrea, PR and White, LL (eds). Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Working Group II Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 229–269.Google Scholar
Mekonnen, MM and Hoekstra, AY (2014) Water conservation through trade: the case of Kenya. Water International 39, 451–468.Google Scholar
Meybeck, A, Gitz, V and Altobelli, F (2015). Water footprint as an indicator to improve the sustainability of food systems? Italian Journal of Agrometeorology 3(Suppl), 29–36.Google Scholar
Raes, D (2009) The ETo Calculator: Evapotranspiration from a Reference Surface. Rome, Italy: FAO. Available at http://www.fao.org/nr/water/docs/ReferenceManualV32.pdf (Accessed 17 April 2018).Google Scholar
Rinaldi, M, Garofalo, P, Rubino, P and Steduto, P (2011) Processing tomatoes under different irrigation regimes in Southern Italy: agronomic and economic assessment in a simulation case study. Italian Journal of Agrometeorology 3, 39–56.Google Scholar
Ringler, C and Zhu, T (2015) Water resources and food security. Agronomy Journal 107, 1533–1538.Google Scholar
Rosegrant, MW and Ringler, C (2000) Impact on food security and rural development of transferring water out of agriculture. Water Policy 1, 567–586.Google Scholar
Rosegrant, MW, Cai, X and Cline, S (2002) World Water and Food to 2025: Dealing with Scarcity. Washington DC, USA: International Food Policy Research Institute. Available at https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/1B0BBA6D1080C010C1256C6E002E1D17-ifpri-water2025-16oct.pdf (Accessed 29 May 2018).Google Scholar
Rost, S, Gerten, D, Bondeau, A, Luncht, W, Rohwer, J and Schaphoff, S (2008) Agricultural green and blue water consumption and its influence on the global water system. Water Resources Research 44, W09405.Google Scholar
Schyns, JF and Hoekstra, AY (2014) The added value of water footprint assessment for national water policy: a case study for Morocco. PLoS ONE 9, e99705.Google Scholar
Strom, M (2015) Water footprint, land footprint, technology and policy: developing a holistic measurement of sustainability. Italian Journal of Agrometeorology 3(Suppl), 58–67.Google Scholar
USDA SCS (1994) Major World Crop Areas and Climatic Profiles. Agricultural Handbook No. 664. Washington DC, USA: World Agricultural Outlook Board, US Department of Agriculture.Google Scholar
Ventrella, D, Gliglio, L, Charfeddine, M and Dalla Marta, A (2015) Consumptive use of green and blue water for winter durum wheat cultivated in Southern Italy. Italian Journal of Agrometeorology 1, 33–44.Google Scholar