Water-saving strategies for irrigation agriculture in Saudi Arabia

Agriculture policy changes in Saudi Arabia are investigated by water footprint (WF) assessment. WF is calculated with the model SPARE:WATER for 3758 irrigated sites. The WF of agriculture areas (WFarea, km3 yr−1) has decreased (–17%) since the year 2000 to 13.84 km3 yr−1 (2011), which is mainly caused by the reduction of cropland by –33%. Nevertheless, water consumption per field has increased about 16%, which can be attributed to the cultivation of fodder crops (+12%). A scenario analysis revealed that a shifting cropping pattern towards less fodder crops reduces WFarea by –15%, and implementing improved irrigation technology leads to a combined reduction of up to 32%