Study Of China's Agricultural Virtual Water Trade

Water is a scarce natural resource, and also a valuable strategic resource. The shortage of water resource has become one of the major bottlenecks for socio-economic development of many countries in the world. China is seriously short of water and one of the 13 countries having the poorest average water resource in the world. How to protect water safety and food security is an important strategic issue to achieve sustainable development in China.The water content required in the production of goods and services is called the virtual water included in goods and services. Water-deficient countries (regions) import water-intensive products, especially agricultural products, from water-rich countries (regions) through virtual water strategy to save their water resource and finally resolve the problem of water shortage. At present, it has been considered as an effective way to improve the efficiency of the global water use and protect water safety in water-deficient areas.This paper arranges the virtual water and its related theories and its measuring methods.According to the previous study at home and abroad, this paper preliminarily counts the trade volume of the virtual water in main agricultural products in 2006, based on measuring the virtual water content in 288 kinds of agricultural products and 105 kinds of livestock products. Empirical analysis shows in the follows.1. The net import of virtual water in China's major agricultural products in 2006 accounts to 116.408 billion m~3, equal to 20 per cent of the total actual water consumption, and effectively eases the pressure on China's water shortage.2. As for the product groups, the virtual water balance in crop products and livestock products are balanced, the net import of virtual water in crop products accounts for total 87.56 percent of the total net imports of virtual water in China.3. In terms of composition of import and export commodities, the structure of import and export trade of virtual water is comparatively simple, the virtual water trade mainly concentrates in several products, and the large import of soybeans and various types of leather is the main source of trade deficit in agricultural products in China.4. As for specific products, the virtual water content of processed products is higher than that of primary products. The virtual water content in fruit and vegetable products is generally low, while that in livestock and processing products is higher.5. In terms of the adjustment of trade structure, we should actively promote virtual water trade in agricultural products, according to regional characteristics, and in the premise of food security, thereby to effectively ease the water shortage problem.The virtual water strategy innovates the field of water resource study, forms new idea of "water resource - the trade of agricultural products - food security" study. It has played a positive role in better achieving the complement of markets and resources of both domestic and international, more better coordinating the relationship among population, resources and ecological environment, effective mitigating the increasingly serious pressure of water shortage. Therefore, the study of virtual water strategy has great theoretical and practical affect on China's strategy of achieving sustainable socio-economic development.