Abstract
Abstract Water availability is one of the major physiological factors influencing plant growth and development. An assessment study has been done at the Szent István University, Gödöllő to evaluate and identify the water footprint of protein yield of field crop species. Twelve field crop species (Sugar beet Beta vulgaris, spring and winter barley Hordeum vulgare, winter wheat Triticum aestivum, maize Zea mays, sunflower Helianthus annuus, peas Pisum sativum, potato Solanum tuberosum, alfalfa Medicago sativa, oilseed rape Brassica napus, rye Secale cereale and oats Avena sativa) were involved in the study. Evapotranspiration patterns of the crops studied have been identified by the regular agroclimatology methodology and physiologically reliable protein ranges within crop yields were evaluated. The results obtained suggest, that water footprint of cereals proved to be the lowest, however maize values were highly affected by the high variability of protein yield. Oilseed crops had considerably high protein yield with medium water efficiency. Alfalfa, potato and sugar beet water footprints were in accordance with their evapotranspiration patterns. Protein based water footprint assessment seems to be more applicable in crop species evaluations than that of yield based methodologies.
Highlights
The water footprint shows the extent of water use in relation to consumption by people (HOEKSTRA and CHAPAGAIN 2007)
The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of fresh water used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business
The water footprint concept was introduced in order to have a consumption-based indicator of water use that could provide useful information in addition to the traditional production-sector-based indicators of water use
Summary
The water footprint shows the extent of water use in relation to consumption by people (HOEKSTRA and CHAPAGAIN 2007). The results obtained suggest, that water footprint of cereals proved to be the lowest, maize values were highly affected by the high variability of protein yield. Potato and sugar beet water footprints were in accordance with their evapotranspiration patterns.
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