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Water Use/Footprint for Agricultural Products during Production, Trade and Consumption...
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Water Use/Footprint for Agricultural Products during Production, Trade and Consumption Processes, Volume II

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Resources Management, Policy and Governance".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 August 2024 | Viewed by 887

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Xinchun Cao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural Water Conservancy, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Interests: water footprint; agricultural water management; irrigation; virtual water; water use efficiency
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Jing Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Interests: virtual water flows; water footprint; agricultural water use; regional water management; water stress
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Qingling Geng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Coll Earth Sci & Technol, ZhengZhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, China
Interests: efficient use of resources in a changing environment ecosystem services in the context of land use and climate change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water represents an essential element for humans, and it plays a significant role in promoting the development of human society. During the last few decades, water use and water management have received more and more attention, considering the increase in water demand and the limited water supply, especially for agricultural sector which is the largest water consumer. This special issue addresses the discussions for water use of agricultural products during different processes, such as production, consumption, trade or others, focus on a particular kind of crop is also welcomed, and different methods including water footprint of but not limited to water-use efficiency, water dependencies, water stress and security, environmentally sustainable water use, water saving and interaction between surface water and underground water, in both natural and artificial systems. Water resource management for agricultural sector which considering of all disciplines of hydrology and different kinds of water sources (such as the blue, green and grey water) is also included.

Prof. Dr. Xinchun Cao
Dr. Jing Liu
Dr. Qingling Geng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • water use
  • agricultural products
  • production, consumption, and trade processes
  • water footprint
  • virtual water
  • irrigation
  • water stress
  • hydrology and crop model
  • water use efficiency
  • agricultural water management

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 2065 KiB  
Article
Assessment of Water Productivity and Economic Viability of Greenhouse-Grown Tomatoes under Soilless and Soil-Based Cultivations
by Suliman Ali Al-Khateeb, Faisal Ibrahim Zeineldin, Nagat Ahmed Elmulthum, Khalid Mohammed Al-Barrak, Muhammad Naeem Sattar, Tagelsir Ahmed Mohammad and Akbar S. Mohmand
Water 2024, 16(7), 987; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16070987 - 28 Mar 2024
Viewed by 662
Abstract
Water scarcity has necessitated the adoption of water-saving techniques in both protected and non-protected farming. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of a water-saving soilless cultivation technique and compare it to conventional soil-based cultivation in protected farming. The soilless technique utilized local [...] Read more.
Water scarcity has necessitated the adoption of water-saving techniques in both protected and non-protected farming. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of a water-saving soilless cultivation technique and compare it to conventional soil-based cultivation in protected farming. The soilless technique utilized local gravel and a mixture of peat moss, humin-substrate, and perlite in a 4:3:1.5 ratio. During the tomato growth cycle, three irrigation regimes were imposed using drip irrigation: 8 Lh−1 design discharge (D1) emitters, 6 Lh−1 design discharge (D0.75) emitters, and 4 Lh−1 design discharge (D0.5) emitters for both cultivation methods. Vegetative growth, fruit yield, and water consumption were measured and water productivity was determined. Additionally, an economic assessment was conducted by estimating and comparing economic coefficients for both cultivation methods. Estimated coefficients included revenues, net profit, benefit–cost ratio, breakeven levels of production and prices, revenues over variable cost, and revenues on investment. The tomato fruit yield under soil-based cultivation surpassed the yield under soilless cultivation. Water productivity under soilless cultivation was nearly double (24.3 kg m−3) that of soil-based cultivation (15.5 kg m−3). Soilless cultivation saved 50% of the irrigation water applied by the conventional soil-based method, conserving energy and protecting the soil from deterioration. Revenues and net profits, driven by higher yield and lower variable costs, favored soil-based cultivation. The economic assessment demonstrated that both cultivation methods were economically viable. However, the soil-based cultivation method was more profitable due to its higher fruit yield. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the soilless cultivation technique is a feasible option for water-saving cultivation. However, the soil-based cultivation method remains more profitable due to its superior fruit yield. The soilless cultivation technique offers significant water savings but needs further improvements to achieve comparable economic returns to traditional farming. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Use/Footprint for Agricultural Products during Production, Trade and Consumption Processes, Volume II)
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