Water Footprint Assessment of Rainfed Crops with Critical Irrigation under Different Climate Change Scenarios in SAT Regions

Semi-Arid Tropical (SAT) regions are influenced by climate change impacts affecting the rainfed crops in their productivity and production. Water Footprint (WF) assessment for on watershed scale is critical water resource planning, development, efficient crop and, better use efficiency. A semi-arid tropical was selected lower Krishna river basin having a 4700 ha area Telangana, India. Soil Assessment Tool (SWAT) used to estimate balance components of like runoff, potential evapotranspiration, percolation, effective rainfall base period (1994 2013) different scenarios Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 2.6, 4.5 8.5 time periods 2020, 2050 2080. Green blue WF viz., maize, sorghum, groundnut, redgram cotton were performed considering rainfed, two irrigations (CI) 30mm 50mm. It indicated that (ER) less than evapo-transpiration (ET) during growing under RCPs, periods, period. The green condition over RCPs had decreasing trend all crops. study suggested agro-ecosystems, can significantly reduce total enhancing through irrigation management using farm resources developed rainwater harvesting structures. maximum significant reduction observed 13–16% 30–32% with 30 mm CI 40–42% 50 Development varieties particularly oilseeds pulses which have higher yields unit consumed could be solution improving overall watersheds SAT regions.