A new report details an absurdity that could have enormous implications for China’s food and energy security in the coming years: The country is growing water-intensive crops in its drier provinces, and then shipping that food to wetter regions for consumption. The BBC reports:
“Because arable land is available mainly in the water-scarce north, irrigation has become widespread, covering 45% of the country’s agricultural land and accounting for 65% of national water withdrawal,” [wrote an international team of researchers.]http://www.the-american-interest.com/blog/2014/06/28/china-flirts-with-water-scarcity-disaster/
They concluded: “China’s domestic food trade is efficient in terms of rainwater but inefficient regarding irrigation, meaning that dry, irrigation-intensive provinces tend to export to wetter, less irrigation-intensive ones.
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