Abstract

BAUTISTA-OLIVAS, Ana Laura; MENDOZA-CARINO, Mayra; ALVAREZ CHAVEZ, Clara Rosalía  and  SANCHEZ MEXIA, Ángel Carlos. Water footprint of lettuce production in aquaponic and hydroponic systems. Rev. Mex. Cienc. Agríc [online]. 2024, vol.15, n.3, e3304.  Epub Aug 19, 2024. ISSN 2007-0934.  https://doi.org/10.29312/remexca.v15i3.3304.

Sustainable agriculture allows the efficient use of natural resources, particularly water. This study aimed to compare the water footprint of the lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) cultivation in two production systems: aquaponic and hydroponic, in order to understand its impact on water resources. Both production systems were established in a shade house in the state of Sonora, Mexico. The experiment was conducted from May 20 to July 29, 2020. The estimation of the WFtotal was calculated by adding the blue water footprints, consumption of water sheet in the development of the crop and of the inputs and materials used in each system (based on information from the scientific literature). The results indicated an average harvested lettuce weight of 0.056 kg (±0.005 kg) in the aquaponic system and 0.097 kg (±0.007 kg) in the hydroponic system. The statistical analysis was evaluated with the Student’s t-test with a significance level of 5%. The estimated BWFs were 0.2941 and 0.1721 m3 kg-1, the WFtotal were 2.6841 m3 kg-1 and 0.1821 m3 kg-1 for the aquaponic system and hydroponic system, respectively, for 19 plants in each system. The values of the WFtotal were high since they represent the sum of the blue water footprints and the WFinputs and materials. The results of this research confirmed the hypothesis proposed as the aquaponic system registered a greater water footprint. However, it is advisable to generate more knowledge on the subject.

Keywords : growing room; NTF system; sustainable agricultural techniques; tilapia.

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