Using of Virtual Water Footprint Concept in Livestock Productions for Water Resources Conservation

Subject Areas : Farm water management with the aim of improving irrigation management indicators

Ehsan Movahednejad ¹ , Hadi Ramezani Etedali ² , Alireza Shokoohi ³

1 - Water Resources M.Sc., Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran
2 - Department of Water Engineering, Imam Khomeini International University
3 - water engineering department, Imam Khomeini international university

Received: 2018-12-28 Accepted : 2019-02-17 Published : 2019-04-21

Keywords: Virtual water trading, Water resources managment, Beef, Milk,

Abstract :

Agricultural water footprint is more than 90 percent of fresh water resources in Iran. About 30 percent of it is used as feed for livestock. The livestock industry is one of the world's most water-based industries, especially in Iran. In this study, the mean livestock feed in the three provinces of Tehran, Alborz and Qazvin were estimated and then, using the Mekonnen and Hokkstra method, the water footprint was calculated. Then these values compared to the average water footprint in other countries (Netherlands, USA, Russia, Mexico, India and the world average). The values of virtual water footprint for producing beef were estimated 44.49, 45.18 and 45.51 m3/kg in milk production were estimated 2.24, 2.25 and 2.43 m3/Lit in Tehran, Alborz and Qazvin provinces respectively. The global average water footprints of beef and milk are 14.4 m3/kg and 1 m3/Lit. This comparision shows that the virtual water footprint in cattle production in Iran is higher than the global average. Based on the results of this study, the high water footprint in animal feed production and poor management of livestock farms are the main reseans of the high water footprint in Animal Production. Reducing water footprint in domestic forage production or forage imports is suggested due to the high contribution of nutrition to the high water footprint of beef and milk.