Use of water in food and agriculture

The following tables give an overview of the water consumption in food and agriculture. Specific values for the water equivalent of a selection of food products are given in the first table. The second table shows the amount of water needed necessary for a few products per unit of consumption. A glass of wine acquires for example 120 liters of water, a hamburger 2.400 liters, a cotton shirt 4.000 liters and a couple of shoes made out of cows leather 8.000 liters. The third table gives an overview of the amount of virtual water used in the different kind of agricultural products. The big difference between the countries is due to the climate, applied technology and the amount of production related to it.Footprints Product Unit Equivalent water in m3 per unit

Cattle Sheep and goats Fresh beef Fresh lamb Fresh poultry Cereals Citrus fruits Palm oil Pulses, roots and tubers

head head kg kg kg kg kg kg kg

4000 500 15 10 6 1.5 1 2 1

Product

Quantity

Equivalent water in liters

glass of beer 250 ml glass of wine 125 ml glass of milk 200 ml glass of apple juice 200 ml cup of coffee 125 ml glass of orange juice 200 ml cup of tea 250 ml chips bag 200 g slice of bread 30 g egg 40 g slice of bread with cheese 30 g + 10 g hamburger 150 g potato 100 g tomato 70 g apple 100 g orange 100 g cotton T-shirt 500 g pair of shoes 1 sheet A4 paper 80g/m2 microchip 2g

75 120 200 190 140 170 35 185 40 135 90 2400 25 13 70 50 4100 8000 10 32

U.S. China India 1903 Rice 849 Wheat 489 Corn Soya beans 1869 Sugarcane 103 Cottonseed 2535 Carton 5733 plaxel Coconut Roast 5790 coffee Tea leaves 13193 Beef 3946 Pork Goat's 3082 meat 5977 Mutton 2389 Chicken 1510 Eggs 695 Milk Milk 3234 powder 3457 Cheese Cow 14190 leather 1972 690 801 2617 117 1419 4254 1654 1937 4124 159 8264

Amount of virtual water per food per country in m3/ton Indo Austra Russia Brazil Japan Mexico Italy nesia lia 3584 3209 1525 4600 1822 3257 2506 2375 1588 1616 734 1066 2421 1397 1285 744 118o 1493 1744 530 3933 2030 2106 1076 2326 3177 1506 164 141 155 120 171 4453 1887 2777 2127 10072 2071 21030 4268 6281 1590 16633 4940 11019 4962 2560 3571 2977 1884 812 3774 4032 11864 4812 1954 33475 37762 6559 10252 16878 5013 4277 2382 11077 11805 40482 21167 6377 4180 7572 2198 1389 861 4005 4278 22724

Nether lands 619 408 11681 3790 2791 5298 2222 1404 641 2982 3190 12572

World Average 3419 1334 909 1789 175 3644 8242 2545 20682 9205 15497 4856 4043 6143 3918 3340 990 4602 4914 16656

3210 18694 749 2255

7488 14500

11110 7002 3002 9474 6592 12560 16482 21028 14818 17112 16961 2211 4397 6947 3938 5909 4818 3994 5202 3652 3550 1000 4648 4963 5i87 6692 7736 7531 1369 5290 7621 5763 4919 1345 4543 5956 5549 5400 1143 5317 5675 3839 6947 2914 1844 915 4255 4544 4175 6267 3913 3337 1001 4654 4969

6368 6253 6793 6671

13513 17710 22575 15929 18384 18222

The amount of water involved in agriculture is significant and most of it is provided directly by rainfall. A rough calculation of global water needs for food production can be based on the specific water requirements to produce food for one person. The present average food ingest 2800 kcal/person/day may require 1000 m3 per year to be produced. The world population is about 6 billion, so water needed to produce the necessary food, excluding water losses due to the irrigation system, is 6000 km3. Most of it is provided by rainfall stored in the soil profile and only 15% is provided through irrigation. Irrigation therefore needs 900 km3 of water per year for food crops. On average just about 40% of water withdrawn from rivers, lakes and aquifers for agriculture effectively contribute to crop production (the rest is lost through evaporation and deep infiltration). Consequently the current global water withdrawals for irrigation are estimated to be about 2000 to 2500 km3 per year. The irrigation level varies from area to area, mostly depending on climate conditions and on the development of irrigation infrastrure. The following figure shows the area equipped for irrigation as percentage of cultivated land by country.

Irrigation-water management has a log way to adapt to the increasing production requirements, however water-saving technologies are already available and can significantly reduce the waste of water. If incentives are in place, as increasing the price of irrigation water, farmers will adopt water-saving irrigation technologies. The main technologies likely to be used in developing countries, where labour is normally abundant but capital scarce, are underground and drip irrigation. Both technologies depend on the frequent application of small amounts of water as directly as possible to the roots of crops. Reducing the pollution loads of water used by farms, industries and urban areas would enable much more of it to be re-used in irrigation. There are enormous potential benefits to be had from the use of wastewater for irrigation. Agriculture will remain the dominant user of water at the global level. In many countries, in particular those situated in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world, this dependency can be expected to intensify. The contribution of irrigated agriculture to food production is substantial but in future the rate of growth will be lower than in the past. Both irrigated and non-irrigated agriculture still have scope for increasing productivity, including water productivity. Arguably, the expansion of irrigated agriculture protected people on the nutritional fringe from premature death, and preserved tracts of land under forest and wetlands from encroachment by hard-pressed farmers.

Read more: http://www.lenntech.com/water-food-agriculture.htm#ixzz2VWLKcfOi Food and agriculture are the largest consumers of water, requiring one hundred times more than we use for personal needs. Up to 70 % of the water we take from rivers and groundwater goes into irrigation, about 10% is used in domestic applications and 20% in industry. Currently, about 3600 km3 of freshwater are withdrawn for human use. Of these, roughly half is really consumed as a result of evaporation, incorporation into crops and transpiration from crops. The other half recharges groundwater or surface flows or is lost in unproductive evaporation. Up to 90% of the water withdrawn for domestic use is returned to rivers and aquifers as wastewater and industries typically consume only about 5% of the water they withdraw. This wastewater from domestic sewage systems and industries should be treated before being dismissed. Since the 1960s the global nutrition has considerably improved, providing more food per capita at progressively lower prices. This performance was possible through high-yielding seeds, irrigation and plant nutrition. As population keeps increasing more food and livestock feed need to be produced in the future and more water applied to this purpose. Irrigate agriculture will have to claim large quantities of water to produce the food required to feed the world. The main source of food for the population of the world is agriculture: this term also includes livestock husbandry, manages fisheries and forestry. The composition of meals changes gradually as lifestyles change. What agriculture produces is driven by consumer demand, and changes in consumer preferences have an influence on the water needed for food production. Cereals are by far the most important source of total food consumption: in developing countries the consumption of cereals 30 years ago represented 61% of total calories. It decreased to 56% nowadays and this reflects diet diversification, proving that more countries achieve higher levels of nutrition. It is expected that cereals will continue to supply more than 50% of the food consumed in the foreseeable future. A large proportion of cereals is produced for animal feed. Food production from the livestock sector includes meat (beef, pork, poultry, etc.), dairy production and eggs. For vegetative growth and development plants require water in adequate quantity and at the right time. Crops have very specific water requirements, and these vary depending on local climate conditions. The production of meat requires between six and twenty time more water than for cereals. Virtual Water