Water Management in Agriculture

Water Management in Agriculture

REWAS: Tool for Assessing the Real agricultural Water Savings

Document Type : Technical extension article

Authors
hossain dehghanisanij 1
Saloome Sepehri 2
elahe kanani 3
1 Associate Professor, Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI), Agricultural Research Education, and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran
2 Assistant professor of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI), Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran
3 PhD student, Department of Water Engineering, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran
Abstract
Water scarcity has always been a serious challenge for agriculture and food security, Therefore, agricultural water saving is the most important strategy to overcoming water resource scarcity. Solutions to overcoming the water crisis by looking at the agricultural sector are not simple and the lack of attention and awareness of the water cycle has led to incomplete and incorrect definitions and sometimes overshadowing planning and investment. The main challenge in this regard is the lack of access to sufficient and real information in the agricultural sector. On the other hand, obtaining measured observations of real water savings requires extensive data collection. Some evidence shown that assumed water savings at the local level are in reality often limited at a basin scale context or even increased water consumption. Therefore, using any kind of simple and pragmatic tools to evaluate the impact of interventions used on the farm scale and larger scales can have significant effects on our behavior towards water resources and its consumption. The REWAS (Real Water Savings) tool is developed to undertake a quick impact assessment of detailed field scale experiments (either by models or pilot plots) on basin-scale potential water savings. REWAS is based on proven concepts of water accounting, water productivity and the appropriate water terminology, as promoted by FAO.
Keywords
Apparent water saving
Real water saving
Recyclable flow
Return current
Useful consumption
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