Evaluation of water shortage in wheat production at Iran

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Department of Natural resources Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Science and Natural Resources, University of Hormozgan, Bandar Abbas, Iran

2 Department of Water Sciences and Engineering, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

3 Department of Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

4 College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia

Abstract

Agriculture has the largest share of total water consumption in the world. Among the cereals, the high consumption and demand of wheat has made it a strategic product. Due to the high level of wheat cultivation in the world, the amount of water used for its production can significantly affect the total water used in the agricultural sector and pose a serious threat to access to water resources. This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the water shortage in wheat production in Iran, emphasizing the framework of the water footprint in the country during the statistical period of 2007-2018. The results of this study showed that the share of blue, green and gray water footprints is 71.76, 15.87 and 13.11% of the total water footprint in the production of Faryab wheat and 55 and 38.34% of the green water footprint respectively. And it forms gray in dry wheat in Iran. Also, the results showed that the average water stress index of wheat production in the country is 0.6, and the range of spatial changes of this index varies from 0.01 in Guilan to 3.01 in Ardebil at the North. The highest level of water self-sufficiency index (lowest dependency index) is related to North Khorasan, Khuzestan and Fars provinces with an average value of 70% and the lowest level of self-sufficiency index is related to Guilan province (2%), Mazandaran 9% and Tehran 16% (highest dependency index). The present study will be very helpful for making decisions about the sustainable management of water resources for wheat production in Iran.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  • Gerbens-Leenes PW, Mekonnen MM, Hoekstra AY. The water footprint of poultry, pork and beef: a comparative study in different countries and production systems. Water Resour. 2012; 25(36):1-2.
  • Hoekstra AY, Hung PQ. Virtual Water Trade: a Quantifcation of Virtual Water Flows between Nations in Relation to International Crop Trade. Value of Water Research Report Series. 2002; No. 11. UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the Netherlands.
  • Fu H, Chen Y, Yang X, Di J, Xu M, & Zhang B. Water resource potential for large-scale sweet sorghum production as bioenergy feedstock in Northern China. Science of the Total Environment. 2019; 653:758-764.
  • Mancosu N, Snyder R. L, Kyriakakis G, & Spano D.Water scarcity and future challenges for food production. Water. 2015; 7(3): 975-992.‏
  • Hoekstra AY, & Hung PQ. Globalisation of water resources: international virtual water flows in relation to crop trade. Global environmental change. 2005; 15(1): 45-56.‏
  • Hoekstra AY, Chapagain AK. The water footprints of Morocco and the Netherlands: global water use as a result of domestic consumption of agricultural commodities. Ecol. Econ. 2007; 64 (1): 143–151.

 

  • Chapagain AK, Hoekstra AY, Savenije HHG, Gautam R. The water footprint of cotton consumption: an assessment of the impact of worldwide consumption of cotton products on the water resources in the cotton producing countries. Ecol. Econ. 2006; 60: 186-203.
  • Cao X, Wu P T, Wang Y B, & Zhao XN. Assessing blue and green water utilisation in wheat production of China from the perspectives of water footprint and total water use. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. 2014; 18(8): 3165-3178.
  • Zhai SX, Quan T, Ma X, Zhang R, Ji C, Zhang T, Hong J.Impact-oriented water footprint assessment of wheat production in China. Science of the Total Environment. 2019; 689: 90–98.
  • Zhang Y, Huang K, Ridoutt BG, Yu Y. Comparing volumetric and impact-oriented water footprint indicators: case study of agricultural production in Lake Dianchi Basin, China. Ecol. Indic. 2018; 87: 14–21.
  • Bazrafshan O, Zamani H, Etedali H R, & Dehghanpir S. Assessment of citrus water footprint components and impact of climatic and nonclimatic factors on them. Scientia Horticulturae. 2019; 250: 344-351.‏
  • Ababaei B, & Etedali H R. Water footprint assessment of main cereals in Iran. Agricultural water management. 2017; 179: 401-411.
  • Bazrafshan O, Ramezani Etedali H, Gerkani Nezhad Moshizi Z, Shamili, M. Virtual water trade and water footprint accounting of Saffron production in Iran, Agricultural Water Management. 2019; 213: 368–374.
  • Falkenmark M. The greatest water problem: the inability to link environmental security, water security and food security. International Journal of Water resources development. 2001; 17(4): 539-554.‏
  • Sullivan C.Calculating a water poverty index. World Dev. 2002; 30 (7): 1195–1210.
  • Vanham D, Bidoglio G. A review on the indicator water footprint for the EU28. Ecol. Indic. 2013; 26: 61–75.
  • Liu J, Yang H, Gosling SN, Kummu M, Flörke M, Pfister S, & Oki T. Water scarcity assessments in the past, present, and future. Earth's future. 2017; 5(6): 545-559.‏
  • Hoekstra AY, Chapagain AK. The blue, green and grey water footprint of rice from production and consumption perspectives. Ecol. Econ. 2011; 70: 749–758.
  • Cao X, Wu M, Guo X, Zheng Y, Gong Y, Wu N, & Wang W.Assessing water scarcity in agricultural production system based on the generalized water resources and water footprint framework. Science of the Total Environment. 2017; 609: 587-597.‏
  • Cao X, Huang X, Huang H, Liu J, Guo X, Wang W, & She D.Changes and driving mechanism of water footprint scarcity in crop production: A study of Jiangsu Province, China. Ecological Indicators. 2018; 95: 444-454.‏
  • Hadi M, Jalili M, Heris A. Assessing the Wheat Yield under Irrigated and Rainfed Farming and Evaluating the Possibility of Supplemental Irrigation of Rainfed by Water Stored in Deficit Irrigated Farming. 2017; 3 (11): 403-411. [Persian]
  • Nasrabadi T, Arab E, Pourasghar F. Investigating the proportion of wheat planted area in Iran with wheat yield and water demand by focusing on virtual water approach. 2015; 3 (41): 529 -543. [Persian]
  • Iran Agriculture Bulletin. Ministry of Agriculture Jihad, Agriculture Jihad Press, Tehran. 2021. [Persian]
  • Sheibani S, Ghanbari A, Asghari pour MR. Determining the Optimal Water Use Efficiency in Wheat Production Sustainability. 2017; 2 (27): 1-18. [Persian]
  • Allen, J.A. Virtual water: a strategic resource global solution to regional deficits. Ground Water.1998; 36: 545–546.
  • Raskin, P, Gleick, P, Kirshen, P, Pontius, G, & Strzepek, K. Water futures: assessment of long-range patterns and problems. Comprehensive assessment of the freshwater resources of the world. 1997; SEI.‏
  • Pfister, S, Koehler, A, Hellweg, S. Assessing the environmental impacts of freshwater consumption in LCA, Environ. Sci. 2009; 43: 4098–4104.
  • Arabi Yazdi, A, Alizadeh, A, Nairizi S, 2009. Study of food security based on the concept of virtual water trade and ecological water foot print (Case study: Khorasan Razavi Province). Journal Of Agroecology, 1(1), -. doi: 10.22067/jag.v1i1.2649.
Iranian journal of Ecohydrology
Volume 9, Issue 4
January 2023
Pages 719-732

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 11 July 2022
  • Revise Date: 19 August 2022
  • Accept Date: 19 December 2022
  • First Publish Date: 22 December 2022
  • Publish Date: 22 December 2022

Share

How to cite

Statistics