Water footprint assessment of the Colombian cocoa production

Abstract

A B S T R A C TThe main objective of the present research was to calculate the water footprint of the Colombian cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) production. The evaluation of crop water requirement and irrigation requirement were based on climate, soil and crop conditions in the country. The water requirement estimation was based on data from six municipalities selected for their representativeness of the highest yield, productivity and commercial dynamics of the country. . Water use per crop unit can be influenced not only by agro-meteorological conditions, but also by the level of production. Therefore, a region with a low water footprint value for a specific crop usually has a favorable climatic condition. Crop evapotranspiration was found to be relatively low, and the highest yields were obtained in association with more productive cropping levels. Given the complexity of a hydrological phenomenon like crop evapotranspiration, the magnitude of these differences may be considered to be small. Avaliação de pegada hídrica da produção de cacau colombiano R E S U M O O objetivo principal da presente pesquisa é avaliar a pegada hídrica da produção do cacau Colombiano (Theobroma cacao L.). A exigência hídrica da cultura, tanto quanto a de irrigação, foi avaliada com base nas condições de clima, solo e da cultura no país. A estimativa da necessidade de água foi baseada em dados de seis municípios selecionados pela representatividade dos seus maiores níveis de rendimento, produtividade e dinâmica comercial do Brasil. De acordo com os resultados a pegada hídrica atingiu 17,100 m 3 t -1 . A nível de província, o maior recorde para este parâmetro foi observado em Tolima com 23,239 m 3 t -1 enquanto Huila registrou o nível mais baixo, com 13,475 m 3 t -1. O consumo de água por unidade de cultura pode ser influenciado não só pelas condições agrometeorológicas, mas também pelo nível de produção; portanto, regiões com baixos valores de pegada hídrica para uma cultura específica geralmente têm condição climática favorável. A evapotranspiração é relativamente baixa e os maiores rendimentos foram obtidos na agricultura com maiores níveis de produção; em razão da complexidade de um fenômeno hidrológico, como a evapotranspiração de uma cultura, a magnitude dessas diferenças pode ser considerada pequena.

Regional Evaluation of Fungal Pathogen Incidence in Colombian Cocoa Crops

“…Cocoa cultivation shows an optimum development at temperatures ranging between 23 and 30 • C, an upper limit that should never exceed [25]. In this regard, all the evaluated farms are within the appropriate range.…”

Water Footprint as an Emerging Environmental Tool for Assessing Sustainable Water Use of the Bioethanol Distillery at Metahara Sugarcane Farm, Oromiya Region, Ethiopia

“…where ET c is sugarcane evapotranspiration, K c is the sugarcane coefficient, and ET o is reference crop evapotranspiration [7].…”

“…where WF blue (m 3 /t) is blue water footprint determined from blue evapotranspiration, SWU blue is sugarcane water use (m 3 /ha), and Y is sugarcane yield (t/ha) [7].…”

“…Agricultural freshwater demand is estimated to increase by 50% in developing countries and by 19% across the globe between 2000 and 2025 [6]. With the current agricultural water utilization efficiency and use rate (approximately 7100 km 3 /year), an additional 5700 km 3 /year of water will be needed to meet the world food demand by 2050 [7]. Globally, the gap between water resources and water demand is increasing due to anthropogenic activities and population increases, exacerbating the problem of water scarcity [8].…”

“…WF is becoming a powerful environmental tool used by producers and consumers to assess water use along the production chain and to identify hotspots with the goal of ensuring continued availability of freshwater [7]. Thus, the ultimate goal of WF is to investigate the sustainability of freshwater use and to develop proper water management practices in different waterconsuming sectors.…”