Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka

VIRTUAL WATER FOOTPRINT ASSESSMENT OF BLACK TEA: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE LOW COUNTRY REGION

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dc.contributor.author Madushani, L.H.A.
dc.date.accessioned 2023-07-14T09:06:21Z
dc.date.available 2023-07-14T09:06:21Z
dc.date.issued 2021
dc.identifier.uri http://repo.lib.sab.ac.lk:8080/xmlui/handle/susl/3654
dc.description.abstract Ceylon Tea takes a unique place in the global market. Freshwater availability is essential for tea productivity as a determinant factor (Hajiboland,2017). As a result, the entire supply chain of tea production generates both direct and indirect water impacts on freshwater resources. The main purpose of this study is to quantify the virtual water footprint of black tea from tea cultivation up to packaging based on low-country regions. All relevant calculations to quantify the water footprint of black tea comply with the recommendations of the water footprint assessment manual in 2012 developed by Water Footprint Network. CROPWAT 8.0 model under irrigation schedule option is used to quantify crop water use of tea crop during tea cultivation. This study revealed that 7963.33 liters of rain water are required to produce 1kg of fresh tea leaves in the tea estate. As per the findings, the total water footprint of black tea is 44,171.55l/kg, with the composition of 87.25% of green water, 0.01% of blue water, and 12.74% grey water. Further, a larger fraction of the water footprint of black tea (99.96%) goes to tea cultivation, and remain fraction goes to tea processing (0.01%) and packaging (0.03%). Therefore, the fraction of indirect water footprint (99.99%) is much higher than the direct water footprint (0.01%) of black tea. Further, the month of March and December can be seen as a significant variation of the virtual water footprint of black tea. Based on the findings of the study, when made tea production increased 1kg it is expected to decrease per unit water footprint of black tea by 0.856 liters. Further, there is a significant difference in average water consumption of black tea in cultivation compared to tea processing and packaging. This study has identified tea cultivation as an environmental hotspot based on the water scarcity index. Therefore, it is recommended that suitable crop and land management practices should be implemented in tea estates to improve land productivity in order to reduce per unit water footprint of black tea. According to this study, Sri Lanka is virtually exporting 44,171.55 liters of freshwater whenever 1kg of black tea is exported, and it generates economic benefit through the main use of rainwater which has a low opportunity cost. en_US
dc.language.iso en_US en_US
dc.publisher Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka en_US
dc.subject Water Footprint en_US
dc.subject Virtual water, en_US
dc.subject Crop Water Use en_US
dc.subject Low country black tea en_US
dc.title VIRTUAL WATER FOOTPRINT ASSESSMENT OF BLACK TEA: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE LOW COUNTRY REGION en_US
dc.type Thesis en_US


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