Virtual water trade, food security and sustainability: Lessons from Latin America and Spain

2014 ◽  
pp. 89-108 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Virtual Water Trade

scholarly journals Sustainable Water Use for International Agricultural Trade: The Case of Pakistan

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 2259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tariq Ali ◽  
Abdul M. Nadeem ◽  
Muhammad F. Riaz ◽  
Wei Xie
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Fruits And Vegetables ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Agricultural Trade ◽  
Agricultural Commodities ◽  
Virtual Water Trade ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Sustainable Water Use

Sustainable use of resources is critical, not only for people but for the whole planet. This is especially so for freshwater, which in many ways determines the food security and long-term development of nations. Here, we use virtual water trade to analyze the sustainability of water used by Pakistan in the international trade of 15 major agricultural commodities between 1990 and 2016 and in 2030. Most of the existing country-level studies on virtual water trade focused on net virtual water importers, which are usually water-scarce countries as well. This is the first study to concentrate on a water-stressed net virtual water-exporting country. Our results show that Pakistan has been trading large and ever-increasing volumes of virtual water through agricultural commodities. Despite the overall small net export of total virtual water per year, Pakistan has been a net-exporter of large quantities of blue (fresh) virtual water through its trade, even by fetching a lower value for each unit of blue water exported. Given Pakistan’s looming water scarcity, exporting large volumes of blue virtual water may constrain the country’s food security and long-term economic development. Improving water use efficiency for the current export commodities, for example, rice and exploring less water-intensive commodities, for example, fruits and vegetables, for export purposes can help Pakistan achieve sustainable water use in the future.

scholarly journals Analysis of Trade-offs between Food Security and Water-Land Savings through Food Trade and Structural Changes of Virtual Water Trade in the Arab World

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sang-Hyun Lee ◽  
Rabi H. Mohtar ◽  
Seung-Hwan Yoo
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Virtual Water Trade ◽  
Food Trade ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Crop Area ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract. The aim of this study is to analyze the impacts of food trade on food security and water-land savings in the Arab World in terms of virtual water trade (VWT). We estimated the total volume of virtual water imported for four major crops – barley, maize, rice, and wheat – from 2000 to 2012, and assessed their impacts on water and land savings, and food security. The largest volume of virtual water was imported by Egypt (19.9 billion m3/year), followed by Saudi Arabia (13.0 billion m3/year). Accordingly, Egypt would save 13.1 billion m3 in irrigation water and 2.1 million ha of crop area through importing crops. In addition, connectivity and influence of each country in the VWT network was analyzed using degree and eigenvector centralities. The study revealed that the Arab World focused more on increasing the volume of virtual water imported during the period 2006–2012 with little attention to the expansion of connections with country exporters, which is a vulnerable expansion. This study shed light on opportunities and risks associated with VWT and its role in food security and land management in the Arab World.

Workshop 7 (synthesis): role and governance implications of virtual water trade

2004 ◽  
Vol 49 (7) ◽  
pp. 199-201
Author(s):  
P. Rogers ◽  
M. Nakayama ◽  
J. Lundqvist ◽  
K. Furuyashiki
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
International Negotiations ◽  
Potential Solution ◽  
Transboundary Water ◽  
Virtual Water Trade ◽  
Transboundary Water Resources

Virtual water trade (VWT) is a powerful concept which stimulates fresh thinking about water scarcity and management. It is a potential solution for water-short countries to achieve food security. VWT may also have the potential to play a key role in international negotiations over management of transboundary water resources.

Analysis of the Relationship between Vegetable Virtual Water Trade and Saltwater Intrusion in Shouguang City, China

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 996-1004
Author(s):  
Wenliang Li ◽  
Qing Sun ◽  
Guowei Cheng ◽  
Weiping Wang ◽  
Shisong Qu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Saltwater Intrusion ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Virtual Water Trade ◽  
The Relationship

scholarly journals Agro-economic and socio-environmental assessments of food and virtual water trades of Iran

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Karandish ◽  
Hamideh Nouri ◽  
Marcela Brugnach
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Water Consumption ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Blue Water ◽  
Water Crisis ◽  
Food Trade ◽  
Water Limitations

AbstractEnding hunger and ensuring food security are among targets of 2030’s SDGs. While food trade and the embedded (virtual) water (VW) may improve food availability and accessibility for more people all year round, the sustainability and efficiency of food and VW trade needs to be revisited. In this research, we assess the sustainability and efficiency of food and VW trades under two food security scenarios for Iran, a country suffering from an escalating water crisis. These scenarios are (1) Individual Crop Food Security (ICFS), which restricts calorie fulfillment from individual crops and (2) Crop Category Food Security (CCFS), which promotes “eating local” by suggesting food substitution within the crop category. To this end, we simulate the water footprint and VW trades of 27 major crops, within 8 crop categories, in 30 provinces of Iran (2005–2015). We investigate the impacts of these two scenarios on (a) provincial food security (FSp) and exports; (b) sustainable and efficient blue water consumption, and (c) blue VW export. We then test the correlation between agro-economic and socio-environmental indicators and provincial food security. Our results show that most provinces were threatened by unsustainable and inefficient blue water consumption for crop production, particularly in the summertime. This water mismanagement results in 14.41 and 8.45 billion m3 y−1 unsustainable and inefficient blue VW exports under ICFS. “Eating local” improves the FSp value by up to 210% which lessens the unsustainable and inefficient blue VW export from hotspots. As illustrated in the graphical abstract, the FSp value strongly correlates with different agro-economic and socio-environmental indicators, but in different ways. Our findings promote “eating local” besides improving agro-economic and socio-environmental conditions to take transformative steps toward eradicating food insecurity not only in Iran but also in other countries facing water limitations.

scholarly journals Virtual Water Trade in the Yellow River Economic Belt: A Multi-Regional Input-Output Model

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 748
Author(s):  
Ming Li ◽  
Qingsong Tian ◽  
Yan Yu ◽  
Yueyan Xu ◽  
Chongguang Li
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Inner Mongolia ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
Cumulative Risk ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
The Yellow River ◽  
Input Output ◽  
Virtual Water Trade

The sustainable and efficient use of water resources has gained wide social concern, and the key point is to investigate the virtual water trade of the water-scarcity region and optimize water resources allocation. In this paper, we apply a multi-regional input-output model to analyze patterns and the spillover risks of the interprovincial virtual water trade in the Yellow River Economic Belt, China. The results show that: (1) The agriculture and supply sector as well as electricity and hot water production own the largest total water use coefficient, being high-risk water use sectors in the Yellow River Economic Belt. These two sectors also play a major role in the inflow and outflow of virtual water; (2) The overall situation of the Yellow River Economic Belt is virtual water inflow, but the pattern of virtual water trade between eastern and western provinces is quite different. Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, and Inner Mongolia belong to the virtual water net inflow area, while the virtual water net outflow regions are concentrated in Shanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang, Ningxia, and Qinghai; (3) Due to higher water resource stress, Shandong and Shanxi suffer a higher cumulative risk through virtual water trade. Also, Shandong, Henan, and Inner Mongolia have a higher spillover risk to other provinces in the Yellow River Economic Belt.

The impact of water scarcity on Chinese inter-provincial virtual water trade

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Deng ◽  
Cai Li ◽  
Ling Wang ◽  
Shuxia Yu ◽  
Xu Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Virtual Water Trade ◽  
The Impact
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