Fuente: PubMed "Tobacco production" Environ Res. 2026 Apr 17:124519. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2026.124519. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTUnderstanding tobacco's water demand under climate change is crucial for China, the world's largest producer. This study quantified the irrigation water requirement (Iwr) for tobacco from 1961 to 2020 using daily data from 491 stations and the Penman-Monteith model. Key quantitative findings include: (1) National average crop evapotranspiration (ETc) significantly decreased from 702.68 mm to 609.57 mm, while Iwr increased from 139.63 mm to 332.47 mm, driven by a decline in effective precipitation (Re). (2) Spatially, high Iwr concentrated in arid northern regions (e.g., Inner Mongolia), whereas southern regions (e.g., Jiangxi) had low Iwr due to sufficient monsoon rainfall. The rainfall crop compatibility index (IRe) averaged 0.66 nationally, but was below 0.23 in the north and above 0.90 in the southeast. (3) Sunshine hours were the dominant climatic driver of ETc (r = 0.87, p < 0.01). These results provide a high-resolution, crop-specific framework for adaptive water management, highlighting the necessity of region-specific strategies such as precision irrigation in high-Iwr zones and optimized cultivar selection.PMID:42002205 | DOI:10.1016/j.envres.2026.124519