The water footprint of irrigation-supplemented cotton and mung-bean crops in Northern Ethiopia
Filmon Tquabo Gebremariam, Solomon Habtu, Eyasu Yazew, Berhane Teklu
Abstract
/ton, of which blue WF covered around 93 %. Comparison of the blue WF from CROPWAT and field-data based estimates showed a good agreement (nRMSE = 4.5 %, nMBE = 10.7 % and relative error/RE/ranging from 0.8 to 17% for cotton and 12.6% for mung-bean) and no significant difference (p = 0.456) was obtained between the two estimates. The effect of planting date on the WF estimation also showed a small variation of 0.7%-6.6 % for cotton and up to 12% for mung-bean. However, major reductions were obtained on the blue WF of cotton and mung-bean as a result of changing planting dates by about two months prior to the baseline planting dates. In this study, it is concluded that WF assessment could be satisfactorily estimated using CROPWAT model if supported with field obtained information such as soil, crop, and weather data. Another finding of the present study was that, changing planting dates close to the major rainy months could substantially contribute to reducing the blue WF in similar climates.