Abstract
ABSTRACT Water catchment to subsidize agricultural activities is estimated at 70% of world consumption. In the western region of Bahia, the main agricultural center of the state, there is intensive use of water for the production of agricultural commodities. In regions with high water demand, quantification of the use of this resource can be performed using anthropic pressure indicators, such as the Water Footprint. Thus, this work determined the Water Footprint of the soybean, cotton, and corn crops produced in the western region of Bahia State. In order to determine the Water Footprint, data of the environmental characteristics and crop production in the region were used, were obtained from different Brazilian public and private institutions. The calculation of Water Footprint of the crops was performed by the sum of the green, blue, and gray components. The average Water Footprint between 2012 and 2017 for soybean corresponded to 1,972.3 m3 t-1, with cotton at 1,825.2 m3 t-1, and corn 512.4 m3 t-1. The analyses of the results and the comparison with the values of the Water Footprint of other regions demonstrate that the edaphoclimatic conditions of the western region of Bahia are propitious to the development of these crops.
Highlights
Conserving water in pursuance of the planet’s sustainability, providing resources to ensure life, health, and economic activity, is a real and growing necessity today, due to the quantitative and qualitative shortage of supply sources
The area occupied by soybean, cotton, and corn crops in that region grew from 289.7 thousand ha in 1988 to 1.99 million ha in 2016 (IBGE, 2016)
The Water Footprint (WF) calculation for soybean, cotton, and corn crops produced in the western region of the state of Bahia was carried out for the period from 2012 to 2017, according to the methodology of Hoekstra et al (2011) (Equation 1): WF = WFgreen + WFblue + WFgrey(1)
Summary
Conserving water in pursuance of the planet’s sustainability, providing resources to ensure life, health, and economic activity, is a real and growing necessity today, due to the quantitative and qualitative shortage of supply sources. Brazil holds a prominent position in agriculture, with large productive areas, due to the availability of arable land and favorable natural resources (NEHRING, 2016). In the state of Bahia, the West region has gained greater importance as the main agricultural center, due to its edaphoclimatic characteristics, governmental incentive, research and social actors involved. Cotton, and corn are the main commodities produced in the region (AIBA, 2015). The area occupied by soybean, cotton, and corn crops in that region grew from 289.7 thousand ha in 1988 to 1.99 million ha in 2016 (IBGE, 2016). For the production of these crops, in addition to the dependence on local edaphoclimatic conditions and production systems, large volumes of water are required when irrigation techniques are adopted in order to increase crop productivity (CHALLINOR et al, 2014)
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