What is crop water use?
Essentially all plants require water for survival. Crop water use is the water used by a crop for growth and cooling purposes. Water used by crops serves several purposes including: translocation of minerals from the soil into plant tissue; relocation of carbohydrates and other plant-produced stubstances from the leaves to stems, roots, fruit, and storage organs; and plant cooling by means of evaporation. The process whereby water is drawn into plants through the roots, moved through the plant, and evaporated from the plant leaf surfaces is termed transpiration. Evaporation and transpiration are physically similar processes (Taylor and Ashcroft, 1972. Physical Edaphology).
