Assessing irrigation system efficiency within the Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Introducing energy performance metrics

With the increasing global population and the challenges posed by climate change, irrigated agriculture faces significant pressure to maximize yields while ensuring sustainability. Assessing irrigation system efficiency within the Water-Energy-Food Nexus (WEFN) framework is therefore crucial. This short communication highlights the urgent need for researchers to incorporate energy performance metrics into irrigation system assessments, addressing an often-overlooked aspect of irrigation efficiency. To this end, we propose two energy performance metric indicators (EPMI): the Energy Consumption Indicator (ECI) and the Energy Footprint Indicator (EFI). These indicators provide valuable insights into the technical, environmental, and socio-economic aspects of irrigated agriculture. By integrating energy consumption assessment into irrigation evaluations, the proposed EPMI offer practical solutions for technical monitoring, cost analysis, and sustainability assessment. This approach addresses challenges such as water scarcity, energy consumption, and environmental degradation, contributing to the resilience and sustainability of agricultural systems within the WEFN framework. Additionally, this short communication includes a case study demonstrating the application of EPMI in comparing irrigation systems under varied management scenarios. Compared to traditional indicators such as crop water productivity (WP) and application efficiency, the proposed ECI and EFI offer complementary insights into energy performance. In our case study, the center pivot system had the lowest ECI (7.03 kWh mm⁻¹ ha⁻¹) and EFI (0.78 kWh kg⁻¹), followed by the furrow (8.44 and 0.96) and solid-set systems (8.16 and 1.08), highlighting energy-use differences not captured by conventional metrics.