Abstract
Purpose
Rice is a major economic crop which has created local livelihood, careers and incomes in the agricultural sector in Thailand, one of the leading rice producers at global scale. Rice is a key commodity in the agriculture sector requiring the highest portion of water demand, around 40% out of the total sector demand of 65%. This study was aimed to develop the water footprint database of rice farming at the national level to support the information for area-based water management and water footprint label based on the methodology described in ISO14046.
Methods
The water footprint inventory data associated with the 8 main cultivated rice species were gathered in accordance with the ISO 14046 Water Footprint. The statistical data of rice cultivation area and production in 2016 were used as the basis for sampling to cover 62% of the national annual production with a 90% confidence interval. Eight rice species were sampled by simple random sampling method, covering 62% of the national annual production with a 90% confidence interval. The total number of samples was 817, covering 114 samples of Khao Dok Mali 105, 103 samples of Pathumthani 1, 103 samples of Phitsanulok 2, 112 samples of RD41, 112 samples of Chainat 1, 103 samples of RD6, 70 samples of San Pah Tawng 1 and 100 samples of riceberry.
Results and discussion
The study found that the rice cultivation in Thailand had an average water footprint inventory of 1665 m3/t and a water scarcity footprint of 334 m3H2Oe/t paddy rice. One hectare of rice cultivation normally required water around 6340 m3/ha on the average. The results showed that Khao Dok Mali 105 has the highest water scarcity (598 m3H2Oe/t paddy rice) as the Northeastern area where it is cultivated, has the highest water stress index. This was followed by RD6, Riceberry, Phitsanulok 2, Pathumthani 1, San Pah Tawng 1 and RD41. Chainat 1 species has the lowest water scarcity footprint (220 m3H2Oe/t paddy rice).
Conclusions
The replacement of rice with sugarcane/cassava could potentially reduce the water scarcity footprint by more than half. The shifting of cultivation period when the average rainfall was higher could slightly decrease the amount of total water requirements, whereas the implementation of alternate wet and dry farming system instead of continual flooding system would moderately reduce the amount of total water requirements. It is expected to use the water footprint national database for more effective water resource management for rice cultivation and to support the decisions on national water policy and the implementation of water scarcity footprint label.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen RG, Pereira LS, Raes D, Smith M (1998) Crop evapotranspiration: guidelines for computing crop water requirements, FAO Drainage and Irrigation Paper 56, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome
Bureau of Agricultural Economics and Department of Agricultural Extension (2016) Strategic plan of the Department of Agricultural Extension. Department of Agricultural Extension (in Thai)
Chapagain AK, Hoekstra AY (2004) Water footprints of nations, Value of Water Research Report Series No. 16, UNESCO-IHE, Delft, The Netherlands
Chapagain AK, Hoekstra AY (2010) The blue, green and grey water footprint of rice from production and consumption perspectives. Ecol Econ 70:749–758
Department of Water Resource (2011) Criteria of water requirement study report. Department of Water Resource (in Thai)
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (2007) The state of food and agriculture, Rome, Italy
Gheewala SH, Mungkung R, Perret SR, Silalertruksa T, Nilsalab P, Chaiyawannakarn N (2013a) Final report: project on “Water Footprinting of food, feed and fuel for effective water resource management”. Thailand Research Fund (TRF), Bangkok
Gheewala SH, Mungkung R, Perret SR, Silalertruksa T, Nilsalab P, Chaiyawannakarn N (2013b) Implications of the biofuels policy mandate in Thailand on water: the case of bioethanol. Bioresour Technol 150:457–465
Gheewala SH, Mungkung R, Perret SR, Silalertruksa T, Nilsalab P, Chaiyawannakarn N (2014) Water footprint and impact of water consumption for food, feed, fuel crops production in Thailand. Water 6:1698–1718
Gheewala SH, Silalertruksa T, Nilsalab P, Lecksiwilai N, Sawaengsak W, Mungkung R, Ganasut J (2018) Water stress index and its implication for agricultural land-use policy in Thailand. J Environ Sci Technol 15:833–846
Hoekstra AY, Chapagain AK (2007) Water footprints of nations: water use by people as a function of their consumption pattern. Water Resour Manag 21:35–48
Hoekstra AY, Chapagain AK (2008) Globalization of water: sharing the planet’s freshwater resources. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford
Hoekstra AY, Hung PQ (2002) Virtual water trade: a quantification of virtual water flows between nations in relation to international crop trade. Value of Water Research Report Series No. 11, UNESCOIHE, Delft, The Netherlands, www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Report11.pdf. Accessed 11 January 2019
Hoekstra AY, Chapagain AK, Aldaya MM, Mekonnen MM (2009) Water footprint manual: state of the art 2009. Water Footprint Network, Enschede
Hoekstra AY, Chapagain AK, Aldaya MM, Mekonnen MM (2011) The water footprint assessment manual: setting the global standard. Washington, DC, London
Institute for Good Governance Promotion (2017) Royal irrigation strategic plan in 2017-2036 (in Thai)
ISO 14046 (2014) Environmental management—water footprint—principles, requirements and guidelines
Kürschner E, Henschel C, Hildebrandt T, Jülich E, Leineweber M, Paul C (2010) Water saving in rice production–dissemination, adoption and short term impacts of alternate wetting and drying (AWD) in Bangladesh. Humboldt-Universitat Zu Berlin SLE Publication Series
Liu J, Zehnder AJB, Yang H (2009) Global consumptive water use for crop production: the importance of green water and virtual water. Water Resour Res 45:W05428. https://doi.org/10.1029/2007WR006051
Long AH, Xu ZM, Zhang ZQ, Su ZY (2005) Analysis of water footprint and consumption pattern in Gansu Province. Adv Water Sci 16:425–418
Meteorological Department (2012) Strategic plan of the Department of Meteorological Department of Meteorological (in Thai)
Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (2017) Driving economic management and policy for important agricultural products. Department of Agricultural Extension. http://new.research.doae.go.th/wp-content/uploads/ZoningFinal.pdf. Accessed 16 January 2019
MTEC (2012) Life cycle inventory database in Thailand. 84 p. National Metal and Materials Technology Center, National Science and Technology Development Agency, Ministry of Science and Technology, Thailand
Mungkung R, Gheewala S, Silalertruksa T, Prapaspongsa T (2016) Water footprint national database of agricultural product project final report. Office of Agricultural Economics (in Thai)
Musikavong C, Gheewala SH (2016) Water scarcity footprint of products from cooperative and large rubber sheet factories in southern Thailand. J Clean Prod 134(Part B) 134:574–582
Office of Agricultural Economics (2017) Agricultural statistics of Thailand 2017. Office of Agricultural Economics, Bangkok
Office of Agricultural Economics (2018) Agricultural statistics of Thailand 2016. Office of Agricultural Economics (in Thai)
Office of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion (2017) SME 4.0 the next economic revelution. Office of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion report (in Thai)
Okadera T, Chontanawat J, Gheewala SH (2014) Water footprint for energy production and supply in Thailand. Energy 77:49–56
Pfister S, Koehler A, Hellweg S (2009a) Assessing the environmental impacts of freshwater consumption in LCA. Environ Sci Technol 43:4098–4104
Pfister S, Koehler A, Hellweg S (2009b) Supporting information: assessing the environmental impacts of freshwater consumption in LCA. Environ Sci Technol 43:S1–S38
Pongpinyopas C, Mungcharoen T (2011) Water footprint of bioethanol production from cassava in Thailand. Kasetsart Engineering Journal (Thailand), pp 41–52
Postel SL, Daily GC, Ehrlich PR (1996) Human appropriation of renewable freshwater. Science 271:788–785
Rejesus RM, Palis FG, Rodriguez DGP, Lampayan RM, Bouman BA (2011) Impact of the alternate wetting and drying (AWD) water-saving irrigation technique: evidence from rice producers in the Philippines. Food Policy 36(2):280–288
Rice Department (2016) Rice cultivation situation in 2015/2016 report. Rice Department (in Thai)
Ridoutt BG (2009) Water footprinting at the product brand level: case study and future challenges. J Clean Prod 17:1228–1235
Ridoutt BG, Pfister S (2010) A revised approach to water footprinting to make transparent the impacts of consumption and production on global freshwater scarcity. Glob Environ Chang 20:113–120
Royal Irrigation Department (2011) Annual Report 2011b. Thai Royal Irrigation Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (in Thai)
Royal Irrigation Department (2015) Rice cultivation manual: alternate wet and dry. Royal Irrigation Department (in Thai)
Royal Irrigation Department (RID) (2011) Crop water requirement for pre-feasibility study; project planning standard group. Office of Project Management, Royal Irrigation Department, Bangkok
Seckler D, Amarasinghe U, Molden DJ, De Silva R, Barker R (1998) World Water Demand and Supply, 1990-2025 Scenarios and Issues. IWMI Research Report 19, IWMI, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Shiklomanov IA (1993) World fresh water resources. In: Gleick PH (ed) Water in crisis: a guide to the world’s fresh water resources. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Shiklomanov IA (2000) Appraisal and assessment of world water resources. Water Int 25(1):11–32
Shiklomanov IA, Rodda JC (2003) World water resources at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Sriphirom P, Chidthaisong A, Towprayoon S (2018) Rice cultivation to cope with drought situation by alternate wet and dry (AWD) water management system: case study of Ratchaburi province, Thailand. Chem Eng Transact 63:139–144
University of Lincoln (2011) Water footprint research could shape next steps for crops. Press and Media Information. http://www.lincoln.ac.uk. Accessed 15 January 2019
UNU-INWEH (2017) Annual Report 2017. Canada
Yamane T (1967) Statistics: an introductory analysis, 2nd edn. Harper and Row, New York
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgement is given to the Agricultural Research Development Agency (Public Organization) under the project “Water footprint databases of rice farming for area-based water management and water footprint label” (Grant No. PRP6005020020) for the financial support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible editor: Niels Jungbluth
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mungkung, R., Gheewala, S.H., Silalertruksa, T. et al. Water footprint inventory database of Thai rice farming for water policy decisions and water scarcity footprint label. Int J Life Cycle Assess 24, 2128–2139 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01648-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01648-0