Assessment of food trade impacts on water, food, and land security in the MENA region
<p>The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has the largest water deficit in the world. It also has the least food self-sufficiency. Increasing food imports and decreasing domestic food production can contribute to water savings and hence to increased water security. However, increased d...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2019-01-01
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| Series: | Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
| Online Access: | https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/23/557/2019/hess-23-557-2019.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has the largest water deficit
in the world. It also has the least food self-sufficiency. Increasing food
imports and decreasing domestic food production can contribute to water
savings and hence to increased water security. However, increased domestic
food production is a better way to achieve food security, even if irrigation
demands an increase in accordance with projected climate changes. Accordingly, the
trade-off between food security and the savings of water and land through
food trade is considered to be a significant factor for resource management,
especially in the MENA region. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the
impact of food trade on food security and water–land savings in the MENA
region. We concluded that the MENA region saved significant amounts of
national water and land based on the import of four major crops, namely,
barley, maize, rice, and wheat, within the period from 2000 to 2012, even if
the food self-sufficiency is still at a low level. For example, Egypt
imported 8.3 million t yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span> of wheat that led to
7.5 billion m<span class="inline-formula"><sup>3</sup></span> of irrigation water and 1.3 million ha of land
savings. In addition, we estimated the virtual water trade (VWT) that refers
to the trade of water embedded in food products and analyzed the structure of
VWT in the MENA region using degree and eigenvector centralities. The study
revealed that the MENA region focused more on increasing the volume of
virtual water imported during the period 2006–2012, yet little attention was
paid to the expansion of connections with country exporters based on the VWT network analysis.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1027-5606 1607-7938 |