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Assessing the Blue and Green Water Resources Use for Regional Crop Production in a Semi Arid Area (The Cap Bon Case Study, Tunisia)

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Agriculture Productivity in Tunisia Under Stressed Environment

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Abstract

Because of the strong expected effects of climate change on water resources and food production it is important to use efficiently, as well as sustainable, water for agriculture production including both components rainfed “green water” and irrigated “blue water”. This is particularly important in the Cap Bon region northeastern Tunisia, where irrigation has increased in the past few decades, using intensively groundwater resources resulting in their degradation as well as their conflicting uses. Efficient management strategies that allow for compromises between agriculture production and water resource preservation are therefore needed. Such strategies require initial assessment of the sustainability of blue and green water resources management for crop production. For this purpose, the Global Water Footprint Standard approach has been used in the Cap Bon region. We calculated the volumetric blue and green water footprint related to wheat, tomato and citrus production as major crops in the region. The results show that the average of total WF of crop production was about 1821 Mm3/yr (85% green, 15% blue) over the period 1999–2008. The total WF (green + blue) of tomato and citrus crops averaged 131 m3/ton, 445 m3/ton, respectively. The green WF of wheat obtained in this study was about 1670 m3/ton, which is equal to the calculated world average (1620 m3/ton) by previous studies. This indicates that large opportunities for improving water footprint are found in low yielding farming systems, particularly in rainfed agriculture (water productivity is already higher in irrigated agriculture because of better yields). The assessment of sustainability of water use showed that the crop growth period when tomato and citrus need water is basically the same as the no precipitation period. The irrigation water requirement furthermore corresponds to the period where the water scarcity is high.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRGREF, University of Carthage, B.P. 10, 2080, Ariana, Tunisia

    Insaf Mekki & Rim Zitouna-Chebbi

Authors
  1. Insaf Mekki
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  2. Rim Zitouna-Chebbi
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Horticultural Sciences and Landscape, Laboratory of Integrated management of natural resources: remote sensing, spatial analysis and modeling (LR17AGR01 / GREEN-TEAM), High Institute of Agronomic Sciences Chott Meriam (ISA-CM) Sousse, Agricultural Research and Higher Education Institution (IRESA), University of Sousse, Sousse, Tunisia

    Faiza Khebour Allouche

  2. Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt

    Mohamed Abu-hashim

  3. Water and Water Structures Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt

    Abdelazim M. Negm

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Mekki, I., Zitouna-Chebbi, R. (2021). Assessing the Blue and Green Water Resources Use for Regional Crop Production in a Semi Arid Area (The Cap Bon Case Study, Tunisia). In: Khebour Allouche, F., Abu-hashim, M., Negm, A.M. (eds) Agriculture Productivity in Tunisia Under Stressed Environment. Springer Water. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74660-5_12

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