Water footprint and water productivity analysis of an alternative organic mulching technology for irrigated agriculture

Agriculture is causing unprecedented pressure on water resources to meet a growing food demand. This determines the necessity of implementing innovative, sustainable, and measurable systems to decrease water consumption while increasing crop yield. This study analyses the performances of biodegradable mulching (OM) felt for irrigated lettuce, integrating water footprint (WF) and water productivity (WP) assessment. Different types of OM were tested in two farms in the peri-urban area of Florence city (Tuscany, Central Italy) during the cropping seasons 2021 and 2022. Water Productivity has been evaluated using direct measurements, while the WF has been calculated according to ISO 14046. Moreover, the AquaCrop model by FAO has been used to simulate potential optimal irrigation conditions in the two farms. Results show that OM determined smaller water requirements for all the different field configurations and irrigation efficiencies simulated with a reduction ranging between 8 % and 95 %. The results allow to evaluate the relative weight of OM on the overall water consumption of the two farms and provide useful insights on the sustainability of the lettuce production chain helping farmers to identify water-related hotspots. • Organic mulching reduces irrigation water requirement between 8 % and 50 %. • Water Productivity with organic mulching increase between 5 % and 50 %. • Water Footprint is directly affected by felt type and the weight of lettuce. • Combination of indicators together with crop modelling can give complete information to farmers.