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Water footprint: applying the water footprint assessment method to Australian agriculture.

BACKGROUND
Water footprint assessment is essentially important for the evaluation of water scarcity that considers both direct and indirect water consumption along the supply chain. This paper presents the estimation of water footprint for locally grown fruits and vegetables in Victoria, Australia. Water footprint was calculated based on the framework developed the Water Footprint Assessment Manual for the crops which are the most practicable to grow in Australia. Nine different crops (apples, grapes, tomatoes, oranges, peaches/nectarines, cherries, potatoes, carrots/turnips and almonds) in the agriculture industry were selected and identified as the most water consumptive crop and least water consumptive crop. For each type of the crops, the three main water footprint components being blue, green, and grey water, are calculated.


RESULTS
It is found that almond has the highest water footprint (6671.96 m3 /ton) and tomato has the least water footprint (212.24 m3 /ton) in Australia. From the global comparison, it is revealed that total water footprint for Australian crops are much higher than the corresponding international average values, except for tomatoes, potatoes and almonds. Also, Almonds is having the highest water footprint amongst the nine crops investigated.


CONCLUSION
The study provides an insight towards future sustainable cropping patterns in Australia, which suggest that tomatoes, carrots/ turnips, potatoes and apples should continue to be grown in Victoria. Whereas stone fruit e.g. almonds should no longer be grown due to its high water footprint. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.