Crop grey water footprints in China: the impact of pesticides on water pollution

Yi, Junjie; Gerbens-Leenes, Winnie; Martínez Aldaya, Maite

Crop grey water footprints in China: the impact of pesticides on water pollution

dc.contributor.author	Yi, Junjie
dc.contributor.author	Gerbens-Leenes, Winnie
dc.contributor.author	Martínez Aldaya, Maite
dc.contributor.department	Ciencias	es_ES
dc.contributor.department	Zientziak	eu
dc.contributor.department	Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD	en
dc.date.accessioned	2024-09-18T13:07:24Z
dc.date.available	2024-09-18T13:07:24Z
dc.date.issued	2024
dc.date.updated	2024-09-18T12:49:10Z
dc.description.abstract	Agricultural water pollution is a significant challenge in China, a rapidly growing economy with a large agricultural sector. The grey water footprint (WF) is a tool for evaluating freshwater pollution. It expresses pollution in volumetric units identifying the pollutant that theoretically needs most water to be diluted to accepted water quality standards. Previous agricultural grey WF studies focused on nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), some studies included pesticides. This study assesses grey WFs based on N, P and 1513 pesticide combinations for twelve main crops and two crop categories in 31 Chinese provinces. Grey WFs, including the pesticide component, are far larger than estimated before, dominating total agricultural WFs (green, blue, and grey). The total grey WF of Chinese agriculture (4,900 109 m3 year−1) is determined by pesticides, while grey WFs related to N and P are 450 and 1,500 109 m3 year−1, differences of a factor of eleven and three respectively. The provinces Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Henan, and Shandong are hotspots contributing 37 % to the total grey WF. A limited number of pesticides used for maize, vegetables, fruits and potato (Mancozeb a fungicide, Acetochlor a herbicide and Cypermethrin an insecticide) dominate total grey WFs, contributing 80 % to the total grey WF. Eliminating the most polluting pesticides per category and redistributing the remaining ones with a similar function but lower grey WFs reduces national water pollution from agriculture by 64 %. Only five crops, i.e. maize, potato, soybean, rice and wheat, and the two crop categories, vegetables and fruits, contribute 94 % to this reduction. Probably grey WFs could reduce even further with a second elimination and redistribution effort. This study is the first national grey WF assessment related to pesticides in agriculture. It offers valuable insights to farmers and policymakers to enhance water quality in China and beyond.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	This study was funded by the China Scholarship Council (CSC), file number 201806350266. The CSC is a non-profit institution affiliated with the Ministry of education of the P.R. China. The support is greatly acknowledged.
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	Yi, J., Gerbens-Leenes, P. W., Aldaya, M. M. (2024) Crop grey water footprints in China: the impact of pesticides on water pollution. Science of the Total Environment, 935, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173464.
dc.identifier.doi	10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173464
dc.identifier.issn	0048-9697
dc.identifier.uri	https://academica-e.unavarra.es/handle/2454/51653
dc.language.iso	eng
dc.publisher	Elsevier
dc.relation.ispartof	Science of the Total Environment 935, 2024, 173464
dc.relation.publisherversion	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173464
dc.rights	© 2024 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.
dc.rights.accessRights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subject	Agriculture	en
dc.subject	Grey water footprint	en
dc.subject	Nitrogen	en
dc.subject	Pesticides	en
dc.subject	Phosphorus	en
dc.subject	Water pollution	en
dc.title	Crop grey water footprints in China: the impact of pesticides on water pollution	en
dc.type	info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.type.version	info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dspace.entity.type	Publication
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