Pakistan’s Virtual Water Export Audit: Formulation of Strategies through Case Study

Abstract

The quantity of water used in the production of the crops, traded worldwide makes up the virtual water (VW) trade linked with food. Scholars use primarily physical water availability when evaluating a country's water abundance or shortage when entering the global VW trade, ignoring economic water scarcity. Out-of-the-box solution to ensure that Pakistan can retain a supply of clean water is to stop the export of virtual water, country needs to shift its focus away from water-intensive crops. For this study, the rice crop is considered only due to its characteristics as rice is a major water consumer crop and water exporter crop from Pakistan. Rice is a major water consumer and exported by Pakistan, hence it was included in this research because of its characteristics. Pakistan's virtual water trade requires balance. Pakistan's reliance on blue water for rice agriculture has caused groundwater scarcity. Better virtual water export management is needed. Virtual water export potentially affects water sustainability, according to the findings. Another way to deal with virtual water export is to improve water efficiency. In Pakistan's semi-arid regions, this research examined at wheat grain yield and water usage efficiency (WUE) under inadequate irrigation. DSSAT was used to simulate yield and evaluate alternative irrigation schedule based on various irrigation levels, ranging from the current irrigation level to 55 percent less irrigation. Different amounts of irrigation had significant effects on wheat grain production and overall water usage, according to the data. On semi-arid, the best irrigation level was obtained with 40% less water (T9), with wheat grain yield of 4940kg/ha and WUE of 5.975kgm-3. Pakistan can save up to 10 times of ground water by adopting new cropping pattern, sowing edible oil crops (sunflower, canola and soybean) which requires less water instead of water intensive crop like rice.