Estimating the Blue and Green Water Footprint of Rice in the Agro-Ecological Zones (AEZ) of Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Plant Production, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

10.22059/ijswr.2024.377040.669719

Abstract

After wheat, rice is the main food of Iranian people and has a special role in nutrition, income and job creation in the agricultural sector. Despite the undeniable importance of this crop, it is considered one of the water-intensive plants in the agricultural sector, and due to the water crisis in the country, the continuation of the cultivation of this crop in many regions of the country is facing many problems. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the potential yield (yield in the absence of water, nutrients, pests and diseases) and to estimate the blue and green water footprint of rice in the agro-ecological zones (AEZ) of the entire country. Water footprint calculations were done with the SSM-iCrop2 model for the time period of 2006-2015. The results show that parts of the northern regions of the country, such as Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan provinces, which are located in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea, have less blue water footprint and more green water footprint, and are suitable areas for rice cultivation. Other provinces of the country, such as Khuzestan, Bushehr, Fars and South Khorasan, which are mainly located in the warm regions of the country, have more blue water footprints and less green water footprints, therefore, these provinces are not suitable for rice cultivation at all.

Keywords

Main Subjects

EXTENDED ABSTRACT

 

Introduction:

After wheat, rice is the main food of Iranian people and has a special role in nutrition, income and job creation in the agricultural sector. Despite the undeniable importance of this crop, it is considered one of the water-intensive plants in the agricultural sector, and due to the water crisis in the country, the continuation of the cultivation of this crop in many regions of the country is facing many problems. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the potential yield (yield in the absence of water, nutrients, pests and diseases) and to estimate the blue and green water footprint of rice in the agro-ecological zones (AEZ) of the entire country.

Materials and Methods:

By using the GYGA climate map and the HC27 soil map and the combination and overlap of these maps, 198 polygons or zones were finally obtained for the agricultural lands of the entire country. In this research, the rice crop was cultivated in virtual form in these zones to evaluate its yield, volume of net applied irrigation water, evapotranspiration, and blue and green water footprints. These 198 zones are covered by 130 meteorological stations and the information collected from these zones was used for simulation. The data required in this research were collected in four groups: 1- meteorological data, 2- soil data, 3- plant data, and 4- management data. Water footprint calculations were done with the SSM-iCrop2 model for the time period of 2006-2015.

Results:

The yield potential of paddy was estimated between 17 and 5527 kg/ha for low yield cultivars in the whole country and between 2682 and 10173 kg/ha for high yield cultivars. The blue water footprint for low yield cultivars in the whole country fluctuated between 446 m3/t and 27268 m3/t. The blue water footprint for high yield cultivars was also 223 m3/t to 2170 m3/t. Furthermore, the amount of green water footprint for low yield cultivars in the whole country was estimated between 51 and 5835 m3/t, and this amount for high yield cultivars was estimated between 29 and 265 m3/t.

Conclusion:

The results show that parts of the northern regions of the country, such as Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan provinces, which are located in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea, have less blue water footprint and more green water footprint, and are suitable areas for rice cultivation. Other provinces of the country, such as Khuzestan, Bushehr, Fars and South Khorasan, which are mainly located in the warm regions of the country, have more blue water footprints and less green water footprints, therefore, these provinces are not suitable for rice cultivation at all. By estimating the water footprint of this crop, while identifying and distinguishing the regions of the country and with necessary planning, rice cultivation should be limited and stopped in areas that have high water consumption.

 

 

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, M.Kh.B., A.S. and E.Z.; methodology, M.Kh.B. and A.S.; software, M.Kh.B. and A.S.; validation, M.Kh.B. and A.S.; formal analysis, M.Kh.B. and A.S.; investigation, M.Kh.B. and A.S.; resources, M.Kh.B.; data curation, M.Kh.B. and A.S.; writing—original draft preparation, M.Kh.B.; writing—review and editing, M.Kh.B., A.S. and E.Z.; visualization, M.Kh.B. and A.S.; supervision, A.S.; project administration, A.S.; funding acquisition, A.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Data Availability Statement

Data is available on reasonable request from the authors.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the reviewers and editor for their critical comments that helped to improve the paper. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support and facilities provided by the Department of Agronomy, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Iran.

Ethical considerations

The authors avoided data fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, and misconduct.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

Erfani Moghaddam, R., Mohaddesi, A., Nabipour, A., Abadian, H., & Nasiri, M. (2018). Tisa, early ripening rice, good quality and high of yield. Shalizar Promotion Magazine, 1 (1), 28-32. (In Persian)
Erfani Moghaddam, R., Nabipour, A., & Nouri, M. Z. (2017). Guidelines for healthy rice production in sustainable agricultural conditions. Agricultural research, education and promotion organization. (In Persian)
Ewaid, S. H., Abed, S. A., & Al-Ansari, N. (2021). Water Footprint of Rice in Iraq. IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science. 722: 1-17.
Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). 2020. Rice production. Available from http://www.fao.org/faostat/
Grassini, P., Van Bussel, L. G. J., Van Wart, J., Wolf, J., Claessens, L., Yang, H., Boogaard, H., De Groot, H., Van Ittersum, M. K., & Cassman, K. G. (2015). How good is good enough? Data requirements for reliable crop yield simulations and yield gap analysis. Field Crops Research. 177: 49-63.
Hekmatnia, M., Safdari, M. & Hosseini, S. M. (2019). Determination and assessment of green, blue and gray water footprints in the international trade of agricultural products of Iran. Iranian Journal of Irrigation and Drainage, 14 (2), 446-463. (In Persian)
Hoekstra, A. Y. (2019). Green-blue water accounting in a soil water balance. Journal of Advances in Water Resources. 129: 112-117.
Hoekstra, A. Y., & Mekonnen, M. M. (2012). The water footprint of humanity, P. Natl. Academy of Sciences. 109: 3232-3237.
Karandish, F. (2019). Investigating the impact of spatial and temporal accuracy in evaluating the water footprint on the water scarcity index in Iran. Iranian Irrigation and Drainage Journal, 14 (5), 1628-1638. (In Persian)
Karandish, F., Esmaeili Sari, A., & Darzi Naftchali, A. (2019). Water footprint evaluation guide: Compilation of a global standard. Publications of Sari University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. 230 p. (Translated in Persian)
Keramat, S. (2020). Modeling the production gap and yield of rice in current and future conditions in Iran. Ph. D. Thesis. Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. (In Persian)
Koo, J., & Dimes, J. (2013). HC27 Generic Soil Profile Database, http://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/20299, Harvard Dataverse, V2.
Li, H., Qin, L., & He, H. (2018). Characteristics of the water footprint of rice production under different rainfall years in Jilin Province, China. Journal of Sci. Food Agric. 98: 3001-3013.
Mekonnen, M. M., & Hoekstra, A. Y. (2011). The green, blue and grey water footprint of crops and derived crop products. Journal of Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. 15: 1577-1600.
Ministry of Jahad Agricultural. (2020). Agricultural statistics for the crop year 2018-2019, volume one: Crops. Ministry of Jahad Agriculture, Planning and Economic Deputy, Information and Communication Technology Center. (In Persian)
Mohaddesi, A., Erfani Moghaddam, R., Sharifi, P., Aminpanah, H. & Abbasian, A. (2017). Studying the relationships between yield and yield components and stability of some of rice genotypes using biplot method. Cereal Research Journal, 6 (4), 411-421. (In Persian)
Mourtzinis, S., Edreira, J. R., Conley, S. P., & Grassini, P. (2017). From grid to field: assessing quality of gridded weather data for agricultural applications. European Journal of Agronomy. 82: 163-172.
Nehbandani, A., Soltani, A., Rahemi Karizaki, A., Dadrasi, A., & Nourbakhsh, F. (2021). Determination of soybean yield gap and potential production in Iran using modeling approach and GIS. J. Integr. Agric. 20 (2): 395-407.
Nehbandani, A., Soltani, A., Taghdisi, R., Dadrasi, A., & Alimagham, S. M. (2020). Assessing HC27 Soil Database for Modeling Plant Production. International Journal of Plant Production.
Paravar, E., Soltani, A., Zeinali, E., Kazemi, H. & Dadrasi, A. (2023). Agro-ecological zoning of Iran for plant production. Iranian Journal of Field Crops Research, 21 (2), 189-202. (In Persian)
Rahimi Moghaddam, S., Deihimfard, R. & Gholami Zali, A. (2023). Comparison of water footprint in various irrigated and rainfed wheat agro-ecosystems from Iran. Crop Production Journal, 16 (2), 43-60. (In Persian)
Rahimi Pol, M., Karimi, V. A., & Asadi, R. (2016). Estimation of water footprint components of rice crop in Mazandaran province. M. Sc. Thesis, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Aban Haraz Institute of Higher Education. (In Persian)
Rattalino Edreira, J. I., Andrade, J. A., Cassman, K. G., Van Ittersum, M. K., Van Loon, M. P., & Grassini, P. (2021). Spatial frameworks for robust estimation of yield gaps. Nature Food.
Rockstrom, J., & Barron, J. (2007). Water productivity in rainfed systems: overview of challenges and analysis of opportunities in water scarcity prone savannahs. Journal of Irrigation Science. 25 (3): 299-311.
Rockstrom, J., Falkenmark, M., Karlberg, L., Hoff, H., Rost, S., & Gerten, D. (2009). Future water availability for global food production: the potential of green water for increasing resilience to global change. Journal of Water Resource Research. 45, W00A12.
Rost, S., Gerten, D., Hoff, H., Lucht, W., Falkenmark, M., & Rockstrom, J. (2009). Global potential to increase crop production through water management in rainfed agriculture. Environmental Research Letters 4.
Sharifi, P., Aminpanah, H., Erfani, R., Mohaddesi, A., & Abbasian, A. (2017). Evaluation of Genotype × Environment Interaction in Rice Basedon AMMI Model in Iran. Rice Science. 24 (3): 173-180.
Sheikh Zeinoddin, A., & Ghiyasi, H. (2022). Evaluation of water footprint and efficiency of water consumption in rice production in line with sustainability. Agricultural Science and Sustainable Production Journal, 34 (2), 207-225. (In Persian)
Sidhu, B. S., Sharda, R., & Singh, S. (2021). An assessment of water footprint for irrigated rice in Punjab. Journal of Agrometeorology. 23 (1): 21-29.
Siebert, S., & Doll, P. (2010). Quantifying blue and green virtual water contents in global crop production as well as potential production losses without irrigation. Journal of Hydrology. 384: 198-207.
Sinclair, T. R. (1986). Water and nitrogen limitations in soybean grain production I. Model development. Field Crops Research. 15 (2): 125-141.
Sinclair, T. R., Soltani, A., Marrou, H., Ghanem, M., & Vadez, V. (2019). Geospatial assessment for crop physiological and management improvements with examples using the Simple Simulation Model. Crop Science. 59: 1-9.
Soltani, A. (2009). Mathematical modeling in crops. Mashhad University Jahad Publications. 176 p. (In Persian)
Soltani, A., & Mirzaei, A. (2020). Sustainable agriculture. Sirang Publications. 384 p. (In Persian)
Soltani, A., & Sinclair, T. R. (2012). Modeling physiology of crop development, growth and yield. CABI Publisher. 312p.
Soltani, A., Alimagham, S. M., Nehbandani, A., Torabi, B., Zeinali, E., Dadrasi, A., Zand, E., Ghassemi, S., Pourshirazi, S., Alasti, O., Hosseini, R. S., Zahed, M., Arabameri, R., Mohammadzadeh, Z., Rahban, S., Kamari, H., Fayazi, H., Mohammadi, S., Keramat, S., Vadez, V., Van Ittersum, M. K., & Sinclair, T. R. (2020). SSM-iCrop2: A simple model for diverse crop species over large areas. Agricultural Systems. 182, 102855.
Soltani, A., Jafar Noudeh, S., Dadarsi, A., Rahban, S., Nazeri, M., Zeinali, E., Najafinejad, A., Torabi, B., & Kazemi, H. (2021). Preparing the provincial agricultural water balance and accounting system by modeling plant production and water balance in agricultural lands: a case study of Golestan province. Research Project. Faculty of plant production. Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. (In Persian)
Soltani, A., Maddah, V., & Sinclair, T. R. (2013). SSM-Wheat: a simulation model for wheat development, growth and yield. International Journal of Plant Production. 7 (4): 711-740.
Soltani, A., Nehbandani, A., Alimagham, S. M., Dadarsi, A., Torabi, B., Zeinali, E., Zand, E., Ghassemi, S., Barani, H., Alasti, O., Hosseini, R. S., Zahed, M., Fayazi, H., Kamari, H., Arabameri, R., Mohammadzadeh, Z., Rahban, S., Pourshirazi, S., Mohammadi, S., Keramat, S., Sosaraei , N., Ashnavar, M., & Ahmadi, M. (2018). Modeling the growth and production of vegetation on a large scale with SSM-iCrop2. Research Project. Faculty of plant production. Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. (In Persian)
Soltani, A., Nehbandani, A., Zeinali, E., Torabi, B., Zand, E., Ghassemi, S., Alasti, O., Dadarsi, A., Hosseini, R. S., Alimagham, S. M., Zahed, M., Mohammadzadeh, Z., Kamari, H., Arabameri, R., Fayazi, H., Rahban, S., Mohammadi, S., & Keramat, S. (2017). Atlas of yield gap and production capacity of important crops in the country in current and future climatic conditions. Sirang Publications. 268 p. (In Persian)
Soltani, A., Zand, E., Aalimagham, S. M., Nehbandani, A., Barani, H., Soltani, E., Torabi, B., Zeinali, E., Mir Karimi, S., & Julaei, R. (2018). Analysis of the country's food security until 2050 by modeling the correlation of water, land, food and environment: perspective and necessary policies. Research Project. Agricultural research, education and promotion organization. (In Persian)
Van Ittersum, M. K., Cassman, K. G., Grassini, P., Wolf, J., Tittonell, P., & Hochman, Z. (2013). Yield gap analysis with local to global relevance—a review. Field Crops Res. 143, 4-17.
Van Oel, P. R., Mekonnen, M. M., & Hoekstra, A. Y. (2009). The external water footprint of the Netherlands: Geographically-explicit quantification and impact assessment. Journal of Ecological Economics. 69: 82-92.
Van Wart, J., Kersebaum, K. C., Peng, S., Milner, M., & Cassman, K. G. (2013). Estimating crop yield potential at regional to national scale. Field Crops Research. 143: 34-43.
Williams, C. L., Liebman, M., Edwards, J. W., James, D. E., Singer, J. W., Arritt, R., & Herzmann, D. (2008). Patterns of regional yield stability in association with regional environmental characteristics. Crop Sci. 48: 1545-1559.
Iranian Journal of Soil and Water Research
Volume 55, Issue 10
December 2024
Pages 1719-1741

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics