Water Footprint And Economic Water Productivity Of Cattle Dairy Farms In Semi-arid Agro-ecological Region Of Mascara-algeria

Résumé: Our contribution takes place in a context of water scarcity in a semi-arid area of western Algeria, in order to evaluate the factors influencing water productivity in dairy cattle breeding. A follow-up during the agricultural season 2019-2020 of the practices within dairy barns belonging to two types of breeding systems (intensive and extensive) located in the region of Mascara. The evaluation indicators concern the volumetric use of water for forage biomass depending on the water source (rainfall, irrigation), the share of virtual water contained in extra-agricultural feed, the endogenous and exogenous feeding of the dairy herd and the milk yield achieved. Analysis of data indicates that productivity of fodder in dry matter differ between extensive and intensive systems with values of the order of 12520 to 17188 kg/ha (p<0.05) respectively. The milk yield per cow did not exceed an average value of 3680 kg (rang 3240 to 4120 kg). The mean gross margin per kilogram of milk was low, not exceeding 0.17 €. The average WF and EWP of milk recorded are 2.05 m3/kg milk and 0.07 € per m3 in semi-arid region, respectively. Green and blue WF represents 57% and 18% of the total WF of milk, respectively and the virtual water with 25%. The WF of milk is dominated by feed production with 82%. Conversely, drinking and servicing water contributed 5% and 11% to the total WF of milk production, respectively. Necessary actions must be taken along the milk production process in order to improve the productivity of water for forage production and the milk which depends in large part on annual rainfall and to a lesser extent on groundwater.

Publié dans la revue: المجلة الجزائرية للعلوم