期刊名称：International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics
印刷版ISSN：2147-8988
出版年度：2019
卷号：7
期号：1
页码：1-15
出版社：International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics
摘要：The virtual water content of a product (a commodity, good or service) relates to the amount
of water that is used in its production. Virtual-water ‘trade’ represents the amount of water
embedded in products traded. With this background, countries that export agriculture
commodities also export water. The purpose of this paper is to explore trends in virtual water
trade in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region focusing on Malawi,
Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zambia, in order to understand whether water rich countries
export more water into the SADC through virtual water trade in cereals. The analysis is based
on data on trade volumes, crop yields, and crop water requirements. The results show that
South Africa, Zambia and Malawi, are the main exporters of virtual water embedded in Maize,
Soybean and Groundnuts into the SADC. The Results also show that while virtual water trade
has generally been increasing over time, an inquiry into whether water rich countries
relatively export more water intensive commodities such as groundnuts and soybean, yields
mixed results. For example groundnuts virtual water movement is stronger from both water
scarce and water rich places of the SADC implying that other underlying factors than just
water endowments may determine virtual water trade flows. For countries to improve water
resource allocation through trade, more advocacy and analysis may be useful.
