IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v307y2025ics0378377424005444.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Agricultural and energy products trade intensified the water scarcity in the grain and energy base in northern China

Author

Listed:
  • Huang, H.W.
  • Jiang, S.
  • Zhang, S.Y.
  • Wang, Y.M.
  • Wang, J.C.
  • Zhao, X.N.
  • Gao, X.R.

Abstract

As an energy and agricultural product export region that plays a crucial role in Chinese grain and energy security, the grain and energy base in northern China is a widely known ecologically fragile region, suffering from severe water scarcity. This study introduced the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus to assess the impact of agriculture and energy trade on the water stress in the study area. We find that the study area is a virtual water (VW) net outflow area, and the VW outflow with trading of agriculture and energy industry accounts for more than 85 %. The VW mainly flows to economically developed regions or water-abundant regions, which presents a "poor to rich" and "lack to abundant" situation. Although the implementation of water-saving techniques has improved the water use efficiency of nine research departments in the study area during 2012–2017, it is still lower than the national average, especially in agriculture. The contribution of VW outflow through agriculture trade to water stress is 20 %, while that through energy trade is 5 %. Approaches, such as VW compensation and inter-regional joint production, may be useful to balance national WEF safety. Otherwise, the water shortage in the study area is likely to worsen in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Huang, H.W. & Jiang, S. & Zhang, S.Y. & Wang, Y.M. & Wang, J.C. & Zhao, X.N. & Gao, X.R., 2025. "Agricultural and energy products trade intensified the water scarcity in the grain and energy base in northern China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:307:y:2025:i:c:s0378377424005444
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2024.109208
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377424005444
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2024.109208?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:307:y:2025:i:c:s0378377424005444. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.