Estimating the Water Footprint of the Four Important Cereal Crops in the Euphrates River Basin, Iraq

Abstract

The footprint of water (WF) is a clear feature of how much water is used during crops and commodity production and other uses in industry and human use. The current research assessed and discussed the water footprint average of the main 4 crops in the seven Iraqi Euphrates River basin provinces during the 2010–2020 years. The levels of blue and green Water footprint were calculated using the Crop Water Requirement (CWR) option in CROPWAT 8.0 software and the findings were compared to global averages and other studies that looked at the same crops. The average annual usage water footprint (WF) for the provinces of Qadysia, Najaf, Dhi-Qar, Muthanna, Babylon, Anbar, and Karbala over the ten years. The average blue WF was 99.72 % and the green WF of rice was 0.28 % where the total production of WF was 789,281,155 m3/yr. Some provinces like Muthanna produces little and has a higher WF so, rice could be replace it with other crops such as vegetables that are provide most economic benefits and needed less water, and production should be concentrate in lower WF provinces like Qadysia and Najaf, while provinces for Najaf and Babylon has a relatively lower total WF of wheat but Anbar has higher WF and using more water for wheat rather than national averages. So, at these provinces, the wheat could be replace it with crops that are need less than water and provided most economic benefits. provinces for Babylon followed by Anbar have a relatively lower total WF of barley but, Dhi-Qar has a higher WF and uses more water of barley. Provinces of Najaf and Anbar has high WF while the Muthanna has lower WF, the current study is expecte to contribute to national authorities into develop most accurate irrigation water managements policies.