Blue and green water footprint assessment of rice crop in high altitude temperate zone of Kashmir, India

The water footprint (WF) for rice has been calculated from 2010 to 2022 for three different districts viz Anantnag, Budgam and Baramulla representing three different climatic regions of Kashmir valley. CROPWAT 8.0 model was used to calculate effective rainfall, reference evapotranspiration (ETo), crop evapotranspiration (ETc), and thereby the green and blue water footprint of rice was determined. ET0 was 117-133 mm in Budgam district, 100-112 mm in Baramulla district and 143-155 mm in Anantnag district. ETc in Budgam was found in the range of 136-149 m3ha-1, in Baramulla district it was found in the range of 115-140 m3ha-1 and in Anantnag district it was highest of the three districts ranging from 163-178 m3ha-1.The results showed that the WF was the highest (3444 l kg-1) in Baramulla district followed by 2300 l kg-1 in Anantnag and 2003 l kg-1 in Budgam districts. The share of green and blue components of WF (WFgreen and WFblue) also varied with the locations and in years. WFgreen and WFblue contributed more or less equally in Baramulla district, 68% and 32% respectively in Burmuda district and 60% and 40 % in Anantnag districts respectively.