IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jresou/v12y2023i4p49-d1120622.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessment of Virtual Water Flows in Morocco’s Foreign Trade of Crop Products

Author

Listed:
  • Abdeslam Boudhar

    (Economic and Management Sciences Studies and Research Laboratory (LERSEG), Polydisciplinary Faculty, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal 23000, Morocco)

  • Said Boudhar

    (Department of Economics, Faculty of Law, Economics and Social Sciences, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech 40000, Morocco)

  • Mohamed Oudgou

    (Economic and Management Sciences Studies and Research Laboratory (LERSEG), National School of Business and Management, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal 23000, Morocco)

  • Aomar Ibourk

    (Social and Solidarity Economy, Governance and Development Laboratory (LARESSGD), Faculty of Law, Economics and Social Sciences, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech 40000, Morocco)

Abstract

As a semi-arid/arid country located in the northwest of Africa, Morocco is facing serious water scarcity driven by the dual stresses of decreasing availability of water resources and increasing water demands. Virtual water trade could be an effective tool to alleviate water scarcity. The paper presents an analysis of the relationships between agrarian productions, foreign trade, and the water sector in Morocco by deriving a comprehensive estimate of virtual water export and import in Morocco’s foreign trade of 40 crop products during the period from 2000 to 2017. Our objectives include determining the intensity of water consumption of exported and imported crop products and quantifying the water consumed and saved, respectively, by locally producing and importing these products. To this end, FAO’s Penman-Monteith climate model was used to estimate crop water requirements based on data on meteorological factors. The results show that Morocco was a net virtual water importer during the study period. The deficit was 595.74 Gm 3 . The tendency of total virtual water export was on a rising trend, while the total virtual water import was on a downward trend. The main exported virtual water was from vegetables (68.87 Gm 3 , 72.47%) and the main imported virtual water was from cereals (679.68 Gm 3 , 98.4%). Regarding crop product’s water intensity, we found that the exported crop products were excessively concentrated on water-intensive products such as mandarins and clementines, figs, oranges, apricots, plums, citrus fruits, olives, tomatoes, asparagus, peas, and artichokes. On the other hand, the agricultural policy of 2009–2020 increased the production of water-intensive products. This finding seems to be going against the virtual water trade theory, which states that water-poor countries should import water-intensive products and produce local products with lower water requirements.

Suggested Citation

  • Abdeslam Boudhar & Said Boudhar & Mohamed Oudgou & Aomar Ibourk, 2023. "Assessment of Virtual Water Flows in Morocco’s Foreign Trade of Crop Products," Resources, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-23, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jresou:v:12:y:2023:i:4:p:49-:d:1120622
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/12/4/49/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/12/4/49/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eduardo A. Haddad & Fatima Ezzahra Mengoub & Vinicius A. Vale, 2020. "Water content in trade: a regional analysis for Morocco," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 565-584, October.
    2. Xia, Wenjun & Chen, Xiaohong & Song, Chao & Pérez-Carrera, Alejo, 2022. "Driving factors of virtual water in international grain trade: A study for belt and road countries," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    3. Ana Serrano & Dabo Guan & Rosa Duarte & Jouni Paavola, 2016. "Virtual Water Flows in the EU27: A Consumption-based Approach," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 20(3), pages 547-558, June.
    4. Novo, P. & Garrido, A. & Varela-Ortega, C., 2009. "Are virtual water "flows" in Spanish grain trade consistent with relative water scarcity?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 1454-1464, March.
    5. Alberto Garrido & M. Ramón Llamas & Consuelo Varela-Ortega & Paula Novo & Roberto Rodríguez-Casado & Maite M. Aldaya, 2010. "Water Footprint and Virtual Water Trade in Spain," Natural Resource Management and Policy, Springer, number 978-1-4419-5741-2, December.
    6. Hoekstra, Arjen Y. & Chapagain, Ashok K., 2007. "The water footprints of Morocco and the Netherlands: Global water use as a result of domestic consumption of agricultural commodities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 143-151, October.
    7. Yang, Hong & Wang, Lei & Zehnder, Alexander J.B., 2007. "Water scarcity and food trade in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(5-6), pages 585-605.
    8. Wang, Like & Fan, Yee Van & Jiang, Peng & Varbanov, Petar Sabev & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír, 2021. "Virtual water and CO2 emission footprints embodied in power trade: EU-27," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    9. Pier Paolo Miglietta & Domenico Morrone, 2018. "Managing Water Sustainability: Virtual Water Flows and Economic Water Productivity Assessment of the Wine Trade between Italy and the Balkans," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-19, February.
    10. Duarte, Rosa & Pinilla, Vicente & Serrano, Ana, 2021. "The globalization of Mediterranean agriculture: A long-term view of the impact on water consumption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    11. Guan, Dabo & Hubacek, Klaus, 2007. "Assessment of regional trade and virtual water flows in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 159-170, February.
    12. Grimble, R. J., 1999. "Economic instruments for improving water use efficiency: theory and practice," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 77-82, March.
    13. Marta Antonelli & Stefania Tamea, 2015. "Food-water security and virtual water trade in the Middle East and North Africa," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(3), pages 326-342, September.
    14. Lu, Shibao & Bai, Xiao & Zhang, Jin & Li, Jinkai & Li, Wei & Lin, Ji, 2022. "Impact of virtual water export on water resource security associated with the energy and food bases in Northeast China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    15. Abdeslam Boudhar & Said Boudhar & Aomar Ibourk, 2017. "An input–output framework for analysing relationships between economic sectors and water use and intersectoral water relationships in Morocco," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 6(1), pages 1-25, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. María Jesús Beltrán & Esther Velázquez, 2011. "Del metabolismo social al metabolismo hídrico," Documentos de Trabajo de la Asociación de Economía Ecológica en España 01_2011, Asociación de Economía Ecológica en España.
    2. Alexandros Gkatsikos & Konstadinos Mattas & Efstratios Loizou & Dimitrios Psaltopoulos, 2022. "The Neglected Water Rebound Effect of Income and Employment Growth," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 36(1), pages 379-398, January.
    3. Ehsan Qasemipour & Ali Abbasi & Farhad Tarahomi, 2020. "Water-Saving Scenarios Based on Input–Output Analysis and Virtual Water Concept: A Case in Iran," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-16, January.
    4. Mubako, Stanley & Lahiri, Sajal & Lant, Christopher, 2013. "Input–output analysis of virtual water transfers: Case study of California and Illinois," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 230-238.
    5. Okadera, Tomohiro & Geng, Yong & Fujita, Tsuyoshi & Dong, Huijuan & Liu, Zhu & Yoshida, Noboru & Kanazawa, Takaaki, 2015. "Evaluating the water footprint of the energy supply of Liaoning Province, China: A regional input–output analysis approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 148-157.
    6. Marta Antonelli & Martina Sartori, 2014. "Unfolding the Potential of the Virtual Water Concept. What is still under debate?," IEFE Working Papers 74, IEFE, Center for Research on Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    7. Dennis Wichelns, 2010. "Virtual Water: A Helpful Perspective, but not a Sufficient Policy Criterion," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 24(10), pages 2203-2219, August.
    8. Duarte, Rosa & Pinilla, Vicente & Serrano, Ana, 2014. "The water footprint of the Spanish agricultural sector: 1860–2010," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 200-207.
    9. Jing Liu & Yu Zhang & Zhongbo Yu, 2018. "Evaluation of Physical and Economic Water-Saving Efficiency for Virtual Water Flows Related to Inter-Regional Crop Trade in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-10, November.
    10. Catherine Laroche-Dupraz & Angela Cheptea, 2021. "Is irrigation driven by the price of internationally traded agricultural products?," Post-Print hal-03227465, HAL.
    11. Hachaichi, Mohamed, 2023. "Unpacking the urban virtual water of the Global South: Lessons from 181 cities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    12. Esther Velázquez & Cristina Madrid & María Beltrán, 2011. "Rethinking the Concepts of Virtual Water and Water Footprint in Relation to the Production–Consumption Binomial and the Water–Energy Nexus," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 25(2), pages 743-761, January.
    13. Cazcarro, Ignacio & Duarte, Rosa & Sánchez-Chóliz, Julio, 2013. "Economic growth and the evolution of water consumption in Spain: A structural decomposition analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 51-61.
    14. Delbourg, Esther & Dinar, Shlomi, 2020. "The globalization of virtual water flows: Explaining trade patterns of a scarce resource," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    15. Niemeyer, Insa & Garrido, Alberto, 2011. "Latin American Agricultural Trade: The Role of the WTO in Sustainable Virtual Water Flows," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 114615, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Okadera, Tomohiro & Chontanawat, Jaruwan & Gheewala, Shabbir H., 2014. "Water footprint for energy production and supply in Thailand," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 49-56.
    17. Pier Paolo Miglietta & Domenico Morrone, 2018. "Managing Water Sustainability: Virtual Water Flows and Economic Water Productivity Assessment of the Wine Trade between Italy and the Balkans," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-19, February.
    18. Wang, Saige & Cao, Tao & Chen, Bin, 2021. "Identifying critical sectors and supply chain paths for virtual water and energy-related water trade in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    19. Ehsan Qasemipour & Farhad Tarahomi & Markus Pahlow & Seyed Saeed Malek Sadati & Ali Abbasi, 2020. "Assessment of Virtual Water Flows in Iran Using a Multi-Regional Input-Output Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-18, September.
    20. Guangyao Deng & Liujuan Wang & Yanan Song, 2015. "Effect of Variation of Water-Use Efficiency on Structure of Virtual Water Trade - Analysis Based on Input–Output Model," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(8), pages 2947-2965, June.

    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:gam:jresou:v:12:y:2023:i:4:p:49-:d:1120622. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.