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One of the most dramatic consequences of climate change is a decrease of available freshwater, apparent in droughts and through other extreme weather phenomena. Clean water is essential for many aspects of life and is considered a human right. Resulting from this, developing more efficient water management systems is one of the most important sustainable development goals of the UN. In most countries irrigation agriculture is the largest consumer of fresh water. (Mishra et al., 2021) Therefore an adaptation towards a more efficient water use in agriculture is an essential in reaching that goal. Technical approaches like drip irrigation and better water management can help deliver the water more efficiently. On the other hand, more water efficient plants can reduce the required water drastically. This can either be achieved by specialized breeding or by replacing certain cultivars with more resilient ones.
Concerning hemp's water requirements, the plant is relatively drought-tolerant and requires less water than many other crops, this higher water use efficiency is especially clear in direct comparison with cotton. Particularly, about 51 to 71 centimetres of water are necessary over the growing season for industrial hemp, in comparison with 25 to 36 centimetres of water needed during the vegetative period.
Water required for a ton of dry matter for hemp and cotton (Wise et al., 2023)
For instance, the cotton’s lowest water requirement needed per growing season is 2.5 times that of hemp’s lowest water requirement (Duque Schumacher et al., 2020). Therefore, hemp growing can contribute to conserving water resources, especially in areas prone to water scarcity or drought. This is especially relevant since 73% of the total cotton production is grown on irrigated land. (Wise et al., 2023) Furthermore, the hemp deep root structure helps to retain soil moisture, lowering the requirement for irrigation while also reducing water runoff (Visković et al., 2023).
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