Sugarcane water footprint in the province of Tucumán, Argentina. Comparison between different management practices

Abstract

The sugar-alcohol industry plays a key role in the economics of the province of Tucuman (Argentina). For that reason, the quantification of water volumes consumed during sugarcane growing as well as the water used in the sugar and bioethanol production and in the manufacturing of associated by-products,is highly important for the development of policies that ensure the sugar and alcohol sustainability. The water footprint is the most widespread and up-to-date indicator used to assess water use and consumption associated to a product, activity or watershed. In this work, the green, blue and grey water footprint of the sugarcane production in Tucuman (Argentina), considering different technology levels, has been assessed. All data used in calculations are mostly taken from local sources, from campaigns 2012 to 2016, with the further goal of building a regional water footprint map of such an important cropas sugarcane is. Results are roughly distributed in green water footprint 12% and grey water footprint 88%. Green water footprint exhibits a counterposed behavior with respect to the technology levels. Blue water footprint is very low, under rainfed farming conditions, because it is only associated to dilution and applicationwater for agrochemicals. Grey water footprint exhibits high values for higher technology level due to the use of triazine-based herbicides, which are not present in the agrochemical recipe of the low technology level. This situation raises an interesting trade-off showing that not always higher technology levels would be the more sustainable ones.