Why use GAWFC?

  • To quickly assess and improve farm water efficiency and productivity
  • to simplify site water stewardship implementation
  • to do crop water use benchmarking and target setting
  • to improve irrigation scheduling
  • to assess and improve farm blue and green water consumption
  • to easily calculate crop water footprints

 Can I use GAWFC myself?

Yes, GAWFC is available in the cloud. If you want to use the tool, we will provide you with a brief training and access to the tool after payment of a license  fee. We can also help you apply GAWFC for your crops or supply chain. Please contact us for further licensing information or an offer.

What is GAWFC?

The Geographic Agricultural Water Footprint Calculator is a sofware tool that calculates daily soil water balances of crops at geographic locations using on five georeferenced data inputs. The structure of the input files enables the calculation of green and blue water use of multiple sites and of multiple crops. The tool can not only be used in sites but also for catchment and supply chain agricultural water balance calculations.

 GAWFC was used for

  • Tomato: benchmarking water use across four countries
  • Banana: water use evaluation, irrigation improvements,
  • Almond: water footprint and water use validation
  • Citrus: water stewardship certification, understand crop water stress
  • Mint: improving irrigation practices, supply chain water stewardship
  • Cotton: improving water productivity and reducing water use
  • Oregano, Thyme, Maize and Alfalfa: crop and economic water productivity comparisons

 Who uses GAWFC?

  • WORLD WIDE FUND FOR NATURE (WWF)
  • MARS
  • EDEKA
  • HELVETAS
  • AQUASIS/COOP
  • FUNDACION COMPITE
  • TASTE/AGROFAIR

Acknowledgements:

GAWFC was created by building on code of Mesfin Mekonnen of the University of Nebraska who in 2012 created a python script to automate global water footprint calculations as part of his scientific work at the University of Twente.