Agricultural and industrial water footprint of olive and olive oil production

In this study, agricultural green water footprint calculations were made for oil olives, an agricultural product grown in Turkey, and industrial water footprint calculations were made for olive oil produced in Mersin province. In the study, the green water footprint of oil olives between 2012 and 2021 years in 17 provinces where olive cultivation is carried out in Turkey was calculated using the Cropwat and Aquacrop programs. ETo, ET, product yield, green water footprint, water efficiency, sensitivity analysis, water footprint of olive oil production and fluctuation severity calculations were made with two different models. Among the olive growing provinces in Turkey, the provinces with the highest and lowest average ETo values were found to be Mardin (4.87 mm/day) and Tekirdağ (2.72 mm/day). The fluctuation severity varies between 2% and 6%, the lowest in Aydın, Hatay, Mersin and Şanlıurfa provinces (2%) and the highest in Adıyaman and Tekirdağ provinces (6%). The highest ET values were obtained in Osmaniye province with both models (679 and 617 mm with Cropwat and Aquacrop models, respectively), the lowest ET values were obtained in Mersin province (524 mm) with the Cropwat model, and in Şanlıurfa province (404 mm) with the Aquacrop model. The highest olive yield was calculated in Osmaniye province (9.06 tons/ha) and the lowest in Kilis province (1.54 tons/ha). The provinces with the highest fluctuation in olive yield were Adıyaman, Denizli and Tekirdağ (15%) and the province with the lowest was Aydın (4%). According to Cropwat and Aquacrop models, the lowest green water footprint was observed in Mersin province with 0.71 and 0.61 m3/kg, and the highest was observed in Kilis province with 3.82 and 3.04 m3/kg, respectively. The highest water productivity was found in Mersin province (1.42 and 1.64 kg/m3) and the lowest in Kilis province (0.26 and 0.33 kg/m3). In sensitivity analyses, it was found that constant CO2 concentration would reduce crop yield with increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation, but increasing CO2 concentration would increase crop yield. As a result, it was calculated that the water footprint value of olive oil obtained from olives grown in Mersin (2441.0-2841.0 L/kg olive oil) is 2.76 times lower than the country average value.