Blue and Green Water Footprint of Agro-Industrial Avocado Production in Central Mexico

Abstract

Mexico is the world-leading avocado producer. The municipality of Uruapan in the Avocado Belt region in Central Mexico produces 153,000 tons a year, nearly 6.4% of Mexico’s total volume. We performed a green and blue water footprint (WF) analysis between 2012 to 2017 in this municipality, and compared the estimated WF volumes with water concessions for agriculture. Mean annual rainfall was 1757.0 mm in the study period, mean effective rainfall 877.2 mm, mean crop evapotranspiration 933.1 mm, and 312.5 mm of mean irrigation requirement. The mean WFtotal was 744.3 m3 ton−1, below the global mean WF for this crop (1086 m3 ton−1). WFtotal was 2.5 times higher in irrigated plantations (1071.4 m3 ton⁻1) than in rainfed plantations (417.1 m3 ton−1). The crop yield was slightly higher (3.8%) under irrigated (10.26 ton ha−1 year−1) than in rainfed plantations (9.88 ton ha−1 year−1). WF and its components varied between years. The lowest WFblue was in 2015 when atypical spring rainfall increased available water during the dry season. The irrigation of avocado plantations doubles water use with a slight yield increase in relation to rainfed plantations. Regarding WF volumes and water concessions, we found that agroindustrial avocado production consumes up to 120% of the surface and groundwater volumes granted to agriculture use in years with dry conditions. The results indicate that other water users are depleted of this resource, creating water stress and scarcity, and leading to water rights conflicts and social discomfort.