Water scarcity has made the agricultural water footprint a critical measure for sustainable resource management, particularly in water-stressed regions such as Iran. This index depends on various factors, including climate, crop yield, dietary habits, and irrigation/agricultural efficiency, which can be estimated more rapidly using modeling approaches. The SSM-iCROP2 model is a simulation model that has been parameterized and evaluated for over 30 crop species in Iran and has been widely used in studies related to crop yield. Since sugar is a key energy source in the food basket, sugarcane occupies vast cultivated areas in the country. Sugarcane is primarily grown in Khuzestan province. This study aimed to apply the aforementioned model to estimate the blue and green water footprint of this strategic crop, using upscaling methods for both potential and farmer-managed conditions from 1992 to 2022. The results showed that the total water footprint of sugarcane (sum of blue, green, and gray water footprints) was 2,251 and 3,134 cubic meters per ton for potential and actual (farmer) conditions, respectively.
