Accounting for Livestock Water Productivity: How and Why?

By Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

The assessment of water productivity in livestock supply chains has a critical role to play in developing productive and sustainable food production systems worldwide. In particular, the evaluation of water productivity improvement options is key to addressing growing food demand and the projected impacts of climate change under conditions where the availability of land and water resources is increasingly limited. In this report, we review current applications of water productivity analysis in livestock supply chains. To do so, we analysed 50 livestock water productivity studies carried out in various regions of the world from 1993 to the present time. We reviewed the assessment goals, system boundaries, methodological approaches, water flows, modelling tools, databases, livestock species and the main findings in each of the studies. We found that there was no consistency in the methods and approaches used to assess water productivity in livestock production chains. The studies varied widely in terms of their assessment goals, methodology, and the sources of water used for the analysis. The main methodological differences were the inclusion or exclusion of background processes, such as water input and the treatment of precipitation in accounting for water use in livestock production processes. Another key issue was the missing uncertainty assessment, which can be classified as input data uncertainty or model uncertainty, as well as choice uncertainties. The review recommends the further development of guidelines that ensure a consistent and coordinated application of water productivity analysis of livestock production systems world-wide.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Release date: Feb 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9789251339343

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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Required citation:

Drastig, K., Vellenga, L., Qualitz, G., Singh, R., Pfister, S., Boulay, A.-M., Wiedemann, S., Prochnow, A., Chapagain, A., De Camillis, C., Opio, C. & Mottet, A. 2021. Accounting for livestock water productivity - How and why?. Land and Water Discussion Papers. Rome, FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca7565en

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ISBN: 978-92-5-132134-8

E-ISBN: 978-92-5-133934-3 (EPUB)

ISSN: 1729-0554

© FAO, 2021

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Contents

FOREWORD

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABSTRACT

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Assessment of measures to ensure food security

1.2 Concepts for calculating water productivity

2. MATERIAL AND METHODS

3. RESULTS

3.1 Objectives of the studies

3.2 Assessment approach

3.3 Life cycle approach

3.4 Water flows

3.5 Livestock species

3.6 System boundaries (inclusion of water flows)

3.7 Databases and modelling

3.8 Accounting for groundwater depletion, water scarcity, adaptation to climate change and nutritional water productivity

4. DISCUSSION

4.1 Goal of studies

4.2 Including or excluding background processes in water input

4.3 Consideration of precipitation

4.4 Including transpiration or evapotranspiration as water input

4.5 Including different livestock outputs

4.6 Addressing uncertainties

5. CONCLUSIONS

6. OUTLOOK

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

Figures

Figure 1. Main objectives of 50 water productivity studies relating water input to generated output in livestock production systems at different scales of analysis

Figure 2. The relationship between inputs and outputs relationships in livestock water productivity studies at different scales of analysis

Figure 3. System boundary and most important water flows at the farm scale.

Figure 4. An analysis of impact assessment in 15 livestock water productivity studies based on the LCA or including 3-4 stages of LCA. The studies shown cover the main objectives ‘quantification of water flows’ and/or ‘Impact assessment’

Figure 5. An analysis of water flows in the livestock water productivity studies

Figure 6: Studies using water from transpiration and studies using both transpiration and evapotranspiration as the input for water productivity analysis of livestock pro-duction systems.

Figure 7. Livestock species respectively. other output included in the LWP studies