Water Footprint of Four Cereals in Irrigation District 011

Abstract

In this chapter, the water footprints (WFs) of corn, wheat, sorghum, and barley are estimated in Irrigation District 011 Alto Rio Lerma (DR011), Guanajuato, Mexico, cereals that cover 90 % of the cultivated area, a little more of the water extracted, and generate 70 % of the production value of DR011. The DRiego and Cropwat Programs were used and their results are compared with those obtained by Hoekstra for Guanajuato. The results show that the WF estimates are very sensitive to performance and that a low WF does not indicate the actual water use. Wheat WF is virtually identical for Cropwat and Hoeskstra and it differs by less than 10 % with that obtained with DRiego. It is considered that estimates of barley WF obtained from DRiego are more logical, because in Guanajuato it is planted mostly using irrigation and with greater yields than rainfed. For the vast differences between the estimates of maize and sorghum obtained with both programs and comparing them with Hoekstra, there is no convincing explanation. These differences are even greater when considering blue and green WFs.