Water Footprint for Garlic under Irrigation Levels and Agrispon Application

Field experiment was conducted in Giza, Egypt, during two growing seasons of 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 on garlic crop, with the objective of investigating the effect of different irrigation levels (60, 80 and 100 % of water requirements and their combination with the foliar spraying applications of agrispon (with 0.5 and 1.0 ml/ liter) on growth and yield. The results indicated that increased irrigation level up to 100% led to increased vegetative characters of garlic and that the lowest growth and productivity was obtained by 60% irrigation level. When considering spray application of agrispon; with 1.0 ml/L increased growth and productivity followed by 0.5 ml/L; while control treatment gave the lowest productivity during the both seasons. Interaction effect between irrigation level and agrispon treatments indicated that 100% irrigation level combined with 1.0 ml/L spray application of agrispon gave the highest garlic productivity followed by 100% irrigation level combined with 0.5 ml/L spray application. The chemical analysis showed that the highest NPK was obtained by 100% irrigation level combined with 1.0 ml/L agrispon application during the both seasons. Regarding water footprint, the highest irrigation water footprint was obtained by 80% irrigation level followed by 60% irrigation level, while the lowest footprint was obtained by 100% irrigation level due to high garlic productivity under 100% irrigation level. The estimate water footprint for garlic was 525 m3/ton. The blue water footprint for garlic was 422 m3/ton about 80% form total water footprint, while gray water percentage about 20% with value of 103 m3/ton.

518 Late-Breaking: Effect of Feedlot Diets on Environmental Emissions from Four Representative U.S. Feedlots and the Beef Production System

Our objective was to evaluate effects of feedlot dietary management strategies on environmental impacts and net returns of feedlot operations in the United States. Representative feedlots were simulated with the Integrated Farm System Model (IFSM 4.6; USDA-ARS, University Park, PA) to quantify baseline environmental impacts of feedlot production and full US beef cattle production systems. The simulated dietary strategies included: 10% increase in feed efficiency, use of less water intensive forages, 10% increase in byproduct inclusion, 10% improvement in water use efficiency of corn, and steam-flaking of corn. Days on feed and head finished per year were held constant for all strategies to have equal comparisons to baseline results. Dietary management strategies were individually modeled and simulated in IFSM for each feedlot operation to obtain intensities (expressed per kg gain) for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, fossil energy use, blue water consumption, and reactive nitrogen loss. Feedlot operations were then linked with cow-calf, stocker, and backgrounding operations to estimate environmental intensities (expressed per kg CW) for full cattle production systems. Improving feed efficiency had the greatest effect on reducing carbon emission intensities (6%), energy use intensity (8%), blue water use intensity (9%), and reactive N loss intensity (4%) for feedlot operations. Increasing corn byproduct inclusion resulted in 9% reduction in blue water use intensity. However, byproduct inclusion increased reactive N loss intensity by 11% as a result of greater protein concentrations in the diet. Switching from rolled corn to steam flaked corn increased energy use intensity by 9%, but little to no changes (1% increase to 3% reduction) were observed for other environmental intensities. Improved feed efficiency was the most effective strategy to reduce environmental footprints of beef cattle production (1 to 2% reductions). Overall, feedlot dietary strategies were less pronounced for the full beef production system compared with feedlot results.

Unravelling the interplay between water and food systems in arid and semi-arid environments: the case of Egypt

Food system analysis in arid and semi-arid countries inevitably meets water availability as a major constraining food system driver. Many such countries are net food importers using food subsidy systems, as water resources do not allow national food self-sufficiency. As this leaves countries in a position of dependency on international markets, prices and export bans, it is imperative that every domestic drop of water is used efficiently. In addition, policies can be geared towards ‘water footprints’, where water use efficiency is not just evaluated at the field level but also at the level of trade and import/export. In this paper, Egyptian food systems are described based on production, distribution and consumption statistics, key drivers and food system outcomes, i.e., health, sustainable land and water use, and inclusiveness. This is done for three coarsely defined Egyptian food systems: traditional, transitional and modern. A water footprint analysis then shows that for four MENA countries, differences occur between national green and blue water volumes, and the volumes imported through imported foods. Egypt has by far the largest blue water volume, but on a per capita basis, other countries are even more water limited. Then for Egypt, the approach is applied to the wheat and poultry sectors. They show opportunities but also limitations when it comes to projected increased water and food needs in the future. An intervention strategy is proposed that looks into strategies to get more out of the food system components production, distribution and consumption. On top of that food subsidy policies as well as smart water footprint application may lead to a set of combined policies that may lead to synergies between the three food system outcomes, paving the way to desirable food system transformation pathways.

A conceptual framework for including irrigation supply chains in the water footprint concept: gross and net blue and green water footprints in agriculture in Pakistan

The water footprint (WF) concept is a generally accepted tool introduced in 2002. Many studies applied water footprinting, indicating impacts of human consumption on freshwater, especially from agriculture. Although the WF includes supply chains, presently it excludes irrigation supply chains and non-beneficial evapotranspiration, and calculations for agriculture start from crop water requirements. We present a conceptual framework distinguishing between traditional (net) WFs and proposed gross WFs, defined as the sum of net WFs and irrigation supply chain related blue WFs and as the sum of green WFs and green WFs of weeds. Many water management studies focused on blue water supply efficiency, assessing water losses in supply chain links. The WF concept, however, excludes water flows to stocks where water remains available and recoverable, e.g. to usable groundwater, in contrast to many water management approaches. Also, many studies focused on irrigation technology improvement to save water. We argue that not only irrigation technology should be considered, but whole water supply chains, also distinguishing between surface and groundwater, to improve efficient blue water use in agriculture. This framework is applied to the Pakistani part of the Indus basin that includes the largest man-made irrigation network in the world. The gross blue WF is 1.6 times the net blue WF leading to a K value (ratio of gross and net blue WF) of 0.6. Surface water losses vary between 45 and 49 %, groundwater losses between 18 and 21 %. Presently, efficient irrigation receives much attention. However, it is important to take irrigation supply chains into account to improve irrigation efficiency. Earlier WF studies showing water scarcity in many regions underestimate agricultural water consumption if supply chains are neglected. More water efficient agriculture should take supply chain losses into account probably requiring water management adaptations, which is more a policy than an agriculture task.