TITLE:
Research on Virtual Water in the Chinese International Grain Trade
AUTHORS:
Xiujuan Wang, Jilian Hu
KEYWORDS:
Virtual Water, Grain Trade, Water Resources, Efficient Allocation
JOURNAL NAME:
Modern Economy,
Vol.6 No.6,
June
26,
2015
ABSTRACT: Focusing on virtual water in the international grain trade, this paper calculates
the virtual water volume embodied in the international grain trade (mainly rice,
wheat, corn and soybean) from 1990 to 2012 in China. By doing so, this paper tries
to evaluate the contribution of virtual water in trade grains to the agricultural
water use in China and its effect on global water resources. The results reveal
that the Chinese grain trade and the virtual water trade have maintained a significant
deficit over 23 years and that there is a significant negative correlation between
the volumes of imported virtual water and water used for agriculture. Each unit
of imported virtual water can reduce agriculture water use by 0.306 units; the water
saving effect brought by the international crop trade and the grain trade gap are
not synchronous. As a result, we present our proposals for enhancing efficient allocation
of water resources and maintaining a sustainable ecological development of the environment.