Water Footprint Of Food Consumption And Its Influencing Factors In Rural China

Water is an indispensable basic resource for human production and life,and the food system is considered to have a significant impact on water resources.It is by linking consumption and water resources that the water footprint provides a new perspective on water crisis management.There are still more than 500 million people in rural China,and their food consumption has changed significantly in the past ten years.To quantitatively measure the water footprint of rural residents’ food consumption and explore its influencing factors is to analyze the impact of residents’ food consumption activities on the water resources system.It is of great significance to the sustainable utilization of water resources.Based on the relevant data on food consumption of rural residents at the provincial level in China from 2005 to 2020,this paper first quantitatively measures the water footprint of rural residents’ food consumption over the years,showing a changing trend in time.Secondly,by calculating the Dagum Gini coefficient,the differences and sources of the regional rural residents’ food consumption water footprint are decomposed and analyzed,and the causes of regional differences are explored in space.Finally,the spatial effect is included,and an extended spatial panel STIRPAT model is constructed to study the influencing factors of rural residents’ food consumption water footprint from five aspects: population,affluence,technology,virtual water trade,and dietary structure.The results show that:(1)The current food consumption structure of rural residents is not reasonable.If the dietary structure is improved according to the recommended amount of dietary guidelines,it is expected to achieve a win-win situation of dietary health and water conservation;(2)In terms of time series,the total food consumption of rural residents is The water footprint shows a slow downward trend,but the water footprint of per capita food consumption is increasing rapidly;(3)In terms of spatial differences,the overall spatial differences in the study area have a tendency to expand,and there are different degrees of increase or decrease within and between regions.(4)In terms of influencing factors,rural population,urbanization,square term of per capita income,grain output per unit area,and proportion of meat consumption All have a significant positive direct effect,and the per capita income of rural residents and agricultural water use efficiency have a significant negative direct effect.In addition,the per capita income and the square term of per capita income of rural residents,grain output per unit area,and the proportion of meat consumption also have significant spatial spillover effects.However,although the food virtual water trade has a significant negative impact on the direct and indirect effects of the food consumption water footprint of rural residents,it cannot be simply concluded at present.This paper further confirms that there is no environmental Kuznets curve in the water footprint of food consumption by Chinese rural residents under the observation data.Finally,by sorting out the research conclusions,relevant suggestions are put forward from three aspects: advocating healthy dietary consumption,promoting virtual water trade,and improving water use efficiency.