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- ItemBuilding consensus on water use assessment of livestock production systems and supply chains: Outcome and recommendations from the FAO LEAP Partnership(Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science, 2021) Boulay, Anne-Marie; Drastig, Katrin; Amanullah; Chapagain, Ashok; Charlon, Veronica; Civit, Bárbara; DeCamillis, Camillo; De Souza, Marlos; Hess, Tim; Hoekstra, Arjen Y.; Ibidhi, Ridha; Lathuillière, Michael J.; Manzardo, Alessandro; McAllister, Tim; Morales, Ricardo A.; Motoshita, Masaharu; Palhares, Julio Cesar Pascale; Pirlo, Giacomo; Ridoutt, Brad; Russo, Valentina; Salmoral, Gloria; Singh, Ranvir; Vanham, Davy; Wiedemann, Stephen; Zheng, Weichao; Pfister, StephanThe FAO Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance (LEAP) Partnership organised a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to develop reference guidelines on water footprinting for livestock production systems and supply chains. The mandate of the TAG was to i) provide recommendations to monitor the environmental performance of feed and livestock supply chains over time so that progress towards improvement targets can be measured, ii) be applicable for feed and water demand of small ruminants, poultry, large ruminants and pig supply chains, iii) build on, and go beyond, the existing FAO LEAP guidelines and iv) pursue alignment with relevant international standards, specifically ISO 14040 (2006)/ISO 14044 (2006), and ISO 14046 (2014). The recommended guidelines on livestock water use address both impact assessment (water scarcity footprint as defined by ISO 14046, 2014) and water productivity (water use efficiency). While most aspects of livestock water use assessment have been proposed or discussed independently elsewhere, the TAG reviewed and connected these concepts and information in relation with each other and made recommendations towards comprehensive assessment of water use in livestock production systems and supply chains. The approaches to assess the quantity of water used for livestock systems are addressed and the specific assessment methods for water productivity and water scarcity are recommended. Water productivity assessment is further advanced by its quantification and reporting with fractions of green and blue water consumed. This allows the assessment of the environmental performance related to water use of a livestock-related system by assessing potential environmental impacts of anthropogenic water consumption (only “blue water”); as well as the assessment of overall water productivity of the system (including “green” and “blue water” consumption). A consistent combination of water productivity and water scarcity footprint metrics provides a complete picture both in terms of potential productivity improvements of the water consumption as well as minimizing potential environmental impacts related to water scarcity. This process resulted for the first time in an international consensus on water use assessment, including both the life-cycle assessment community with the water scarcity footprint and the water management community with water productivity metrics. Despite the main focus on feed and livestock production systems, the outcomes of this LEAP TAG are also applicable to many other agriculture sectors.
- ItemWater-saving agriculture can deliver deep water cuts for China(Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science, 2019) Huang, Guorui; Hoekstra, Arjen Y.; Krol, Maarten S.; Jägermeyr, Jonas; Galindo, Alejandro; Yu, Chaoqing; Wang, RanranChina is working hard to reconcile growing demands for freshwater with already oversubscribed renewable water resources. However, the knowledge essential for setting and achieving the intended water consumption cuts remains limited. Here we show that on-farm water management interventions such as improved irrigation and soil management practices for maize cultivation can lead to substantial water consumption reductions, by a simulated total of 28–46 % (7–14 billion m3/year) nationally, with or without the impacts of climate change. The water consumption cut is equivalent to 16–31 % of the ultimate capacity of the South-North Water Transfer Project. Much of the reduction is achievable at the populous and water-stressed North China Plain and Northeast China. Meanwhile, the interventions can increase maize production by an estimated 7–15 %, meeting 22–28 % of demand increase projected for 2050. The water management and food production improvements obtained are crucial for achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to water, land, and food in China and far beyond. © 2019 The Authors