The proliferation of food, feed and biofuels demands promises to increase pressure on water competition and stress, particularly for Thailand, which has a large agricultural base. This study assesses the water footprint of ten staple crops grown in different regions across the country and evaluates the impact of crop water use in different regions/watersheds by the water stress index and the indication of water deprivation potential. The ten crops include major rice, second rice, maize, soybean, mungbean, peanut, cassava, sugarcane, pineapple and oil palm. The water stress index of the 25 major watersheds in Thailand has been evaluated. The results show that there are high variations of crop water requirements grown in different regions due to many factors. However, based on the current cropping systems, the Northeastern region has the highest water requirement for both green water (or rain water) and blue water (or irrigation water). Rice (paddy) farming requires the highest amount of irrigation water, i.e., around 10,489 million m3/year followed by the maize, sugarcane, oil palm and cassava. Major rice cultivation induces the highest water deprivation, i.e., 1862 million m3H₂Oeq/year; followed by sugarcane, second rice and cassava. The watersheds that have high risk on water competition due to increase in production of the ten crops considered are the Mun, Chi and Chao Phraya watersheds. The main contribution is from the second rice cultivation. Recommendations have been proposed for sustainable crops production in the future.

A synbiotic product of combined Lactobacillus plantarum TISTR 875 with water extracts and crude fibers from corn, mungbean, and soybean was formulated to investigate the survival of L. plantarum during freeze-drying and storage. The impacts of those water extracts and crude fibers on probiotic survival were determined in both a cultural medium and a freeze-drying medium. L. plantarum cultivated in de Man, Rogosa, and Sharpe (MRS) broth containing 2 % of water extract from soybean with 2 % mungbean fiber showed only 0.11 log CFU/ml cell reduction. The survival of L. plantarum harvested at the late log phase, mid stationary, phase and late stationary phase did not show statistical significance (P > 0.05), whereas an initial pH of 6.5 and growth temperature of 37 °C showed greater impact (P < 0.05). The addition of corn extract to the freeze-drying medium as a cryoprotectant had a similar effect on L. plantarum survival as sucrose, but it was better (P < 0.05) than fructo-oligosaccharide and exopolysaccharides from Weissella cibaria A2, soybean extract, mungbean extract, soybean, corn, and mungbean fibers. A protective coating of corn extract was revealed and observed using scanning electron microscopy. The freeze-dried L. plantarum, cultivated in MRS broth containing soybean extract and mungbean fiber with corn extract as a cryoprotectant, retained high viability of 7.21 and 6.88 log CFU/ml after 8-week storage in a vacuum-packed aluminum foil-laminated polyethylene sachet and a nitrogen-flushed glass vial, respectively. ©Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012.