Water footprint benchmarks for crop production

In a new report Mekonnen and Hoekstra (2013) show that if the green-blue water footprint of crop production would be reduced everywhere in the world to the level of the best 25th percentile of current global production, there would be a water saving in global crop production of 39% compared to the reference water consumption. With a reduction to the water footprint levels of the best 10th percentile of current global production, the water saving would be 52%.

In the case that nitrogen-related grey water footprints in crop production are reduced, worldwide, to the level of the best 25th percentile of current global production, water pollution is reduced by 54%. If grey water footprints per ton of crop are further reduced to the level of the best 10th percentile of current production, water pollution is reduced by 79%.

The full report can be accessed here:

Mekonnen, M.M. and Hoekstra, A.Y. (2013) Water footprint benchmarks for crop production, Value of Water Research Report Series No. 64, UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the Netherlands.

http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Report64-WaterFootprintBenchmarks-CropProduction.pdf