Abstract
AbstractThe agriculture sector is vulnerable to climate change and related changes in the hydrological cycle. In order to understand the changes in climatic variables and their implications for agricultural water consumption, the present study aims to analyse the temporal variability of climatic factors and water footprint (WF) of rice and wheat during the period 1986–2017 in Ludhiana, Punjab. Further, it aims to identify the dominant climatic factors that cause variation in reference evapotranspiration (ETo) and WF of rice and wheat. WF was estimated using CROPWAT, and Path analysis was used to determine the dominant climate variables. Temporal trends of climate variables were analysed using the Mann–Kendall test. The total WF of both rice and wheat shows a significant declining trend over the past 32 years. Sunshine duration and wind speed were the dominant factors influencing the variability of total WF of rice and wheat, respectively, whereas rainfall strongly influenced the green and blue WF of rice and wheat. Rainfall had a high variability, and consequently, irrigation water requirement was highly fluctuating. This indicates the significant impact of present and projected erratic pattern of precipitation on agriculture due to climate change and reiterates the importance of adaptive measures like rainwater harvesting and capacity building.
Highlights
The agriculture sector is one of the most vulnerable sectors to the risks of climate change and related changes in the hydrological cycle (Smit & Skinner )
The volumetric Water footprint (WF) comprises three components: green WF refers to the consumption of rainwater; the blue WF refers to water consumed from surface and groundwater sources; while grey WF is an indicator of volume of water polluted, i.e. the freshwater volume required to assimilate the pollutant load to bring it to natural condition/ambient standards (Hoekstra et al )
The present study aims to analyse the temporal variability of climatic factors and WF of rice and wheat production during the period 1986–2017 in Ludhiana, Punjab
Summary
The agriculture sector is one of the most vulnerable sectors to the risks of climate change and related changes in the hydrological cycle (Smit & Skinner ). Large-scale changes in the hydrological cycle like increase in atmospheric water vapour, changes in precipitation, soil moisture and run-off have been linked to global warming (Bates et al ). Climatic factors along with non-climatic drivers like ‘population growth, economic development, urbanization, land use changes and water management responses’ competing for water resources can have profound impacts on water availability for both rainfed and irrigated agriculture (Cisneros et al ). With the projected expansion in irrigated area and cropping intensity, it is estimated that future irrigation water demand would surpass water availability in various regions under climate change scenario (Wada et al ). Temporal trends in WF reflect changes in crop water use over time for a given place (Lu et al ). ETo is a key variable in the hydrological process and determines the availability of water for plant growth (Gao et al ). There have been fewer studies on the temporal trends of WF and the influence of climatic factors on WF of crops (Sun et al , ; Lu et al ; Kayatz et al )
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
