Assessing Water Consumption Of Barley Cultivation In Thi-qar Province, Iraq

Water footprint, Water scarcity, Water consumption, Crop production, Iraq We assessed the blue and green water consumption for cultivating barley in the Thi-Qar province, Iraq. CROPWAT 8.0 model was used to compute the total crop water use for both crops based on the meteorological data such as rainfall, maximum and minimum temperature, wind speed, sunshine and humidity as well as the soil and crop characteristics. The Penmann-Monteith method has been applied to calculate the evapotranspiration rate. The results showed that the ranges of blue water consumption for barley for10 years were between 761 m3/ton – 2,275 m3/ton. Whereas the green water footprint for the same years was ranged from 47 m3/ton – 1,235 m3/ ton. The results of this study can provide valuable information about water consumption and water availability in the Thi-Qar Province and serve as a guideline to solve or reduce water scarcity problem, thus help the relevant authorities to adopt new water strategies for Thi-Qar Province, Iraq.