Dear Dr. Pankaj,

maybe this publication is of interest for your work:

Mekonnen, M.M. and Hoekstra, A.Y. (2012) A global assessment of the water footprint of farm animal products, Ecosystems, 15(3): 401–415.

available at:

http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Mekonnen-Hoekstra-2012-WaterFootprintFarmAnimalProducts.pdf

and the related reports, which may provide more in-depth explanations:

Mekonnen, M.M. and Hoekstra, A.Y. (2010) The green, blue and grey water footprint of farm animals and animal products, Value of Water Research Report Series No.48, UNESCO-IHE.

http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Report-48-WaterFootprint-AnimalProducts-Vol1.pdf

and the appendix

http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Report-48-WaterFootprint-AnimalProducts-Vol2.pdf

all those data can be found in the WaterStat database of the Water Footprint Network:

http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/WaterStat-ProductWaterFootprints

Maybe this helps.

Best regards,

Markus Pahlow

The question is obviously if you want to know irrigation water productivity or overall water productivity (including rainwater). For global assessments you can use also papers published on the same line as those mentioned above (you can view them on my profile). For detailed assessment of water consumption you can use aquacrop from FAO (http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquacrop.html).

Anyway, it is not mainly the question of how much water you deliver but how much of this water actually is consumed (the water perculating back to groundwater is considered non-consumptive and therfore not lost for water avilability.

You could make your own scientific test : measure how many water you deliver trought sprinkler jet , and the amount of crops recolted after ...and do the same for a same size land with same crops and watered in a traditionnal way

and you will have yours answers (don't hésitate to post the results)

Water used by the crop can also be calculated by water balances approach, measuring the volume of water discarged throung the sprinklers and substracting evaporation, percolation (if any below root zone), water stored in soil, will give the consumptive use of crop. That depth multipied to an area over the cropping period may give the results in Vol/ ha / yr. Production in t/ha/yr is known if the fodder is sold then you can find Vol of water / ton of fodder / ha / yr

DR. Markus Pahlow, thanks for the information provided.

Simply, put some try to collect the water. From the try surface and the water collected you can calculate the irrigation dosage in terms of mm (or liters by m2). THis can be referred also to the irrigation interval in minutes, and you will have the water flux density of the irrigatio system. If the engine of the irrigation is giving you constant power, you can knoiw thew total amoun of applied water.

Sum to this the precipitation, and at leaast you will have the total amount (maximum water use).

may be an idea also to look for embedded (or virtual) water. Several interesting sits are available following a simply Googling :-)

read Luwesi CN. (2010). Hydro-economic Inventory in Changing Environment – An assessment of the efficiency

of farming water demand under fluctuating rainfall regimes in semi-arid lands of South-East Kenya

(ISBN: 978-3-8433-7607-5). Lambert Academic Publishing AG & CO.KG, Saarbrüken, Germany, 180 P.

I think that it is important to specify the biome wherein this will be taking place, because different water evaporation coefficients will occur according to temperature, humidity, elevation above sea level(which also leads to alternating levels of air pressure). Also the different climatic zones will also affect how the plat grows.