Water footprint and water productivity analysis of an alternative organic mulching technology for irrigated agriculture

IF 5.9 1区农林科学 Q1 AGRONOMY

Agricultural Water Management Pub Date : 2025-02-21 DOI:10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109380

Tommaso Pacetti , Niccolò Renzi , Marco Lompi , Andrea Setti , Daniele Spinelli , Giulio Castelli , Elena Bresci , Enrica Caporali

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Agriculture is causing unprecedented pressure on water resources to meet a growing food demand. This determines the necessity of implementing innovative, sustainable, and measurable systems to decrease water consumption while increasing crop yield. This study analyses the performances of biodegradable mulching (OM) felt for irrigated lettuce, integrating water footprint (WF) and water productivity (WP) assessment. Different types of OM were tested in two farms in the peri-urban area of Florence city (Tuscany, Central Italy) during the cropping seasons 2021 and 2022. Water Productivity has been evaluated using direct measurements, while the WF has been calculated according to ISO 14046. Moreover, the AquaCrop model by FAO has been used to simulate potential optimal irrigation conditions in the two farms. Results show that OM determined smaller water requirements for all the different field configurations and irrigation efficiencies simulated with a reduction ranging between 8 % and 95 %. The results allow to evaluate the relative weight of OM on the overall water consumption of the two farms and provide useful insights on the sustainability of the lettuce production chain helping farmers to identify water-related hotspots.

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来源期刊

Agricultural Water Management 农林科学-农艺学

CiteScore

12.10

自引率

14.90%

发文量

648

审稿时长

4.9 months

期刊介绍： Agricultural Water Management publishes papers of international significance relating to the science, economics, and policy of agricultural water management. In all cases, manuscripts must address implications and provide insight regarding agricultural water management.