Choosing the Best Province in Potato Production using Water Footprint Assessment

The water footprint consider as a indicator of freshwater resources appropriation which brings valuable insight about the environmental impact of a given product. The aim of this study is determining the best country’s province for the potato crop production in terms of fresh water consumption, for this object water footprint indicator was used. To achieve this goal, first data on harvested area, production and yield in major producing provinces were collected for the crop year 2014-15. Then to calculate the water footprint in each province, information such as crop water requirement and effective precipitation were collected separately for each province and finally water footprint components were determined. The results showed that green, blue and grey water footprint devoted most contribution in all provinces respectively. According to calculated total water footprint, Hamedan province is the best region for potato harvesting and Semnan province is the most difficult region for this purpose. Water footprint average for potato production was calculated 527 m3/ton in the country. According to water footprint indicator and provinces potato production, it was determined that in mentioned crop year, Hamedan province by using 338 MCM and North Khorasan by using 18 MCM of water, allocated the highest and the lowest amount of water to this agricultural production respectively.