A study on tea water footprint in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Huang wei Chih, 黃韋智
• Other Authors: Kuo Nae Wen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/rj36yh

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 地理學系 === 102 === Water footprint studies on agricultural production and products are more and more valued due to global water shortage. However, water footprint studies on tea, as one the most important beverage crop worldwide, are relatively scarce in relation to those on coffee. Hence, in this study, attempts are made to investigate the water footprint of tea production (WF) by surveying and gathering data concerning tea production in Taiwan. CROPWAT 8.0 model, developed by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), is used to calculate the data of virtual water over spaces of tea production (VWS) calculated based on climate, soil, and cop data input. Moreover, field operation data are also gathered from ten tea farms located in PingLin and MingJian. Results of this study show that virtual water over spaces of tea production (VWS) of PingLin and MingJian are 41.725 and 7.162 mm/m^2/day respectively, while WF of tea product of PingLin and MingJian are 242.98 and 17.363 m^3/kg respectively. By further analysing WF based on its type, we find that green, blue, and grey WF accounted for 4.3%, 0%, and 95.7% of total WF respectively in PingLin; green, blue, and grey WF accounts for 38.26%, 0.04%, and 61.7% of total WF respectively in MingJian. In addition, this study also finds that total water consumption of making a cup of 125 ml tea, coffee, and cocoa are 62.242, 113.8, and 156.61 liters respectively. Thus, total water consumption of a cup of tea is the smallest among three stimulant crops.