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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
The proliferation of food, feed and biofuels demands promises to increase pressure on water competition and stress, particularly for India, which has a large agricultural base. So Water Footprint (WF) has been widely spread as an indicator that contributes to a safe and sustainable use of water. The purpose of this study was to determine the WF of different paddy varieties and to search the best paddy variety which can give more yield with less water. The estimation was made using the methodology proposed in The Water Footprint Assessment Manual, according to which the WF of a crop, in this case paddy, represents the relation between the amount of water satisfying the evapotranspiration demand (CWR) and the field productivity. The WF has three components: green, associated with rain water used by the crop, blue related to underground or surface water that fulfils the evapotranspiration demand and grey, related to the volume of water required to dilute the residues of pollutants generated from the crop production. Study was carried out under eighteen year old Dalbergia sissoo based agroforestry system during the crop year of 2016-17. Three paddy varieties viz. Danteshwari (short growing period), MTU 1010 (medium growing period) and Kranti (long growing period) were selected for the study. Total water footprint of Danteshwari, MTU 1010 and Kranti were 6.214 m3 kg-1, 3.427 m3 kg-1 and 4.455 m3 kg-1 respectively. Green, blue and grey water footprint of MTU 1010 was lowest among the three varieties. Green and grey water footprint of Danteshwari was highest but blue water footprint was highest in Kranti. In view of water resource conservation and yield potential MTU 1010 was found an ideal paddy variety.