Investigation on water content of selected agricultural products of East Azarbaijan and West Azarbaijan

摘要

According to environmental sustainability indicators, Iran is considered to be in an undesirable situation. Analysing solutions for the current water crisis is, consequently, essential. The current study concentrates on the agricultural water efficiency in East and West Azarbaijan. Regarding sustainable development index of The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for water resources, this basin which covers the main part of this area is exposed to extremely high risks of drought ( 40 %). Statistics indicate that agriculture sector consumes almost 91.8 % of allocated water in this area. In order to focus on water consumption in agriculture sector partial equilibrium method was utilised to calculate real virtual water content. This method compares the amount of allocated water to that calculated based on water requirement of selected products. The results show that water efficiency for producing most of the agricultural products in East/West Azarbaijan is almost 21%.