Blue Water and the Consequences of Alternative Food Security Policies in the Middle East and North Africa for Water Security

Larson, Donald F.

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGRICULTURAL WATER;    AGRICULTURAL WATER USE;    AGRICULTURE;    AQUIFER;    BREAD;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6464
RP-ID  :  WPS6464

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

In the Middle East and North Africa,food security and water security are tightly entwined. Inparticular, choices about the extent to which food securitypolicies rely on trade rather than domestically producedstaples have stark consequences for the region'slimited water resources. This paper builds on previousmodeling results comparing the cost and benefits of policiesto protect consumers against surging international wheatprices, and expands the analysis to consider theconsequences of the policies for water resources. Aself-sufficiency policy is analyzed as well. Results suggestthat trade-based food security policies have no significanteffect on the sustainability of water resources, while thecosts of policies based on self-sufficiency for waterresources are high. The analysis also shows that whileinformation about the water footprint of alternativeproduction systems is helpful, a corresponding economicfootprint that fully measures the resource cost of water isneeded to concisely rank alternative policies in economicterms that are consistent with sustainable outcomes.