Evaluation of Sugarcane Cultivation in The Khuzestan Province in the Context of Virtual Water

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• r safi
• s.m Amirlatifi

Abstract

The introduction of the virtual water concept raised the world’s attention toward the huge virtual displacement of water which is being done in the form of international agricultural products trade. In this regard, those countries that are suffering from shortage of water can increase their access to the world’s water resources by importing their needed food products. The water, which is used in the different stages of production of agricultural or non-agricultural products is called the value of virtual water in goods. In this research, the water productivity and the virtual water of sugarcane production by the Amirkabir agro-industry in the Khuzestan Province was quantified. It was found that the water productivity of sugarcane cultivation was 1.6 kg of sugar per m³ of water and 625 m³ of water was used to produce one ton of sugarcane taking into account the fact that irrigation efficiency was 49%. It was concluded that considering the high volume of water used for sugarcane production (35000 m3 for the average production of 56 tons of sugarcane per hectare), and assuming that the crop water consumption of sugarcane cultivation in other parts of the country is the same as in the Amirkabir Agro-Industry farms, the total volume of water consumed for the production of sugar in the country (616/000 tons) was estimated roughly to be about 3.8 billion m³ during 2013. Therefore, it is possible to reduce water use in Iran by 3.8 billion m3 if no more sugarcane production is carried out and the equivalent of the sugar produced in the country (616000 tons) be imported from the major sugar exporting countries such as Brazil or India. During the same year, 1579000 tons of sugar was imported, which implies that 4.8 billion m3 of water was imported to the country in the form of virtual water. Since sesame is a crop that is grown in the Khuzestan Province with an average production of 1500 kg of sesame seeks per hectare, and it is a drought resistance crop, the replacement of sugarcane cultivation with sesame and its effect on the regional water use was evaluated. It was estimated that by allocating 35000 hectares of Khuzestan’s farm Fields to the cultivation of sesame, it is possible to reduce water use up to 993 million m3 annually, if sugarcane plantation were replaced with sesame cultivation. The annual net benefit from 35000 hectares of sugarcane production was estimated at about 202 billion tomans, while the similar value for the same area of sesame cultivation was estimated at 204 billion tomans. Therefore, it is also economically feasible to consider such crop pattern substitution

Keywords

• Virtual water
• Water productivity
• Khuzestan
• Cane
• sesame

20.1001.1.20086377.1394.8.25.6.4

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