Assessing Green and Blue Water Footprints in the Supply Chain of Cocoa Production: A Case Study in the Northeast of Colombia

Carlos Andrés Naranjo-Merino, Oscar Orlando Ortíz-Rodriguez and Raquel A. Villamizar-G
Additional contact information
Carlos Andrés Naranjo-Merino: Gaia Servicios Ambientales. Cll 32b sur-47-06, Envigado 050001, Antioquia, Colombia
Oscar Orlando Ortíz-Rodriguez: Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial, Universidad de Pamplona, Km 1 Bucaramanga, Campus Universitario, Pamplona 760032, Norte de Santander, Colombia
Raquel A. Villamizar-G: Departamento de Microbiología, Universidad de Pamplona, Km 1 Bucaramanga, Campus Universitario, Pamplona 760032, Norte de Santander, Colombia

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Cocoa is an important commercial crop in the tropics, and estimating the water footprint to target areas of improvement is a worthwhile effort. The main goal of this paper was to assess the regional green and blue water footprints (WF) of cocoa ( Theobroma cacao L.) production in the department of Norte de Santander, Colombia. Water footprint assessment was based on the Water Footprint Assessment Manual. The results show that the green water footprint was about 13,189 m 3 /ton, and the blue water footprint was 5687 m 3 /ton. The WF proposed method can be a good approximation for the uses of water for different crops, but weather conditions and hydrological modeling must be considered in extreme conditions, which would permit a much more detailed analysis for a region. This study allowed us to provide data on the cocoa water footprint, principally concentrating on elevated grain production in the department of Norte de Santander, Colombia. In addition, some of these results may positively contribute to water resource management improvement, especially regarding food security and water scarcity, both at the local and national levels. Therefore, the cocoa production process was analyzed from agronomic practices in settled crops, through the primary processing of the grain, to the procedures of grain selection and packaging. Thus, taking into consideration that most cocoa crops produced in Colombia are not irrigated, it is possible to implement productivity enhancement programs.

Keywords: blue footprint; cocoa; evapotranspiration; green footprint; virtual water; water footprint (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/1/38/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/1/38/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2017:i:1:p:38-:d:124275

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().