Opportunity costs of virtual water: a justification for green-water based agricultural capacity growth for economic, social and environmental sustainability

TY - JOUR

T1 - Opportunity costs of virtual water: a justification for green-water based agricultural capacity growth for economic, social and environmental sustainability

AU - Gilmont, Efrem Michael

AU - Antonelli, Marta

AU - Greco, Francesca

PY - 2015/10/1

Y1 - 2015/10/1

N2 - Traditional development of water and agriculture based on irrigation tends to lead to over-extraction of environmentally-derived water as water use rises to an unsustainable peak. This behaviour is usually remedied by maintaining agricultural production while re-investing in efficiency and alternative water resources. Such behaviours effectively pay twice for the same production capacity. An alternative approach would adopt a different development pathway; a conjunctive use of both irrigation (blue) water and rainfed soil (green) water to provide a reliable production, meaning that ‘virtual water’ exported in crops contains less blue water. Blue water resources can then be directed at activities with a higher opportunity cost (industrial and municipal use), yielding greater value per drop to local populations, especially important when using non-renewable groundwater. Through sustainable optimisation of resource allocation, the new paradigm of agricultural water development avoids, an unsustainable over-development of water, and greater virtual water sustainability.

AB - Traditional development of water and agriculture based on irrigation tends to lead to over-extraction of environmentally-derived water as water use rises to an unsustainable peak. This behaviour is usually remedied by maintaining agricultural production while re-investing in efficiency and alternative water resources. Such behaviours effectively pay twice for the same production capacity. An alternative approach would adopt a different development pathway; a conjunctive use of both irrigation (blue) water and rainfed soil (green) water to provide a reliable production, meaning that ‘virtual water’ exported in crops contains less blue water. Blue water resources can then be directed at activities with a higher opportunity cost (industrial and municipal use), yielding greater value per drop to local populations, especially important when using non-renewable groundwater. Through sustainable optimisation of resource allocation, the new paradigm of agricultural water development avoids, an unsustainable over-development of water, and greater virtual water sustainability.

KW - virtual water

KW - sustainable water use

KW - green water

KW - rainfed agriculture

KW - water footprint

M3 - Article

SN - 2038-5625

VL - Special Issue

SP - 49

EP - 57

JO - Italian Journal of Agrometeorology

JF - Italian Journal of Agrometeorology

IS - 2015

ER -