Water Footprint Assessment towards Food Sustainability for the Valley Region of Manipur, North East India

Water is a scarce resource. Thus water consumption by crops needs to be monitored to maintain future food sustainability. Water footprint (WF) is a tool to estimate water consumption by humans and the available fresh-water. Assessment of WF is significant for planning and managing water scarcity and food security. Rice is a staple crop in Manipur, North East India, requiring a large amount of water for production. In this study, the WF of rice is estimated for the valley region of Manipur for three years using satellite remote sensing and meteorological datasets. The critical parameters required for assessing WF of rice are evapotranspiration, precipitation and yield. For the analysis of WF, MODIS 8 daily evapotranspiration data and the CHIRPS dataset were used for evapotranspiration and precipitation respectively. Three components of WF were analysed in order to attain the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. The analysis of green and blue water footprints suggests that the green-to-blue water foot-print ratio is 0.8 to 10. The area exhibits a green-to-blue ratio of less than 1, which indicates a greater utilization of irrigation water (blue water) in comparison to rainwater (green water). A value less than 1 demonstrates the need to reduce blue water use in these areas by selecting alternative food crops and increasing green water throughout the valley region to achieve the food sustainability goal.