Evaluation of Virtual Water and Water Footprint of Crop Production (Case study: Qaleganj County)

To address the optimal use of available water resources, a revisit of water resource allocation and management is needed. Water use and water footprint of every product varies in different geographical areas due to various climate, agricultural operations and water efficiencies. Thus, more productive management schemes are to be developed. The goal of this study is to assess the virtual water and the water footprint of agricultural products in Qaleganj County between 2011 and 2016 in order to optimally exploit the available water resources. Using the cultivation area and the amount of production, the yield of each product was calculated and then according to the presented relationships, the amount of virtual water, blue and green virtual water, water footprint and water productivity index in the studied products were calculated separately. This study shows that the highest area of cultivation in Qaleganj is related to cereals and date, which covers more than half of the 48,000 hectares of total cultivated land and more than 60% of total water footprint, while their crop yield is low. On the other hand forage maize, onions and melons are accounted for 38.5% of the Countychr(chr(chr('39')39chr('39'))39chr(chr('39')39chr('39')))s agricultural product with the highest water productivity. This paper investigates the changes in water footprint versus production and total crop area. It seems that providing training services on the use of modern irrigation methods would encourage farmers to cultivate more productive crops with less water footprints. In proposing alternative cultivation patterns, economic issues and land capability should also be considered.