AN ANALYTICAL STUDY TO ESTIMATE WATER FOOTPRINT AND ITS ECONOMIC EFFECTS FOR WHEAT CROP IN EGYPT

Wheat is the most important strategic grain crops in Egypt . The average area with wheat in Egypt is about 3.144 million Feddans (2000-2018).Wheat cultivated area comprises about 45.2% of the total area of the winter crops during (2016 – 2018), which is about 6.953 million Feddans. Under the condition of limited resources in Egypt, Virtual Waters principle considers importing/exporting crops equivalent to importing/exporting water resources from other countries. Available works used farm-scale experimental data, which didnt add-up to applicable values. In this work, we use data by CAPMS (Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics Egypt) to evaluate wheat water footprint in Egypt. The objectives of this work are: to estimate the Overall Water Footprint indicators for the wheat crop, and to estimate the food security coefficient, and the strategic stock for the crop. In addition, to evaluate the relative value of contribution from local wheat production, wheat imports and the Egyptian agricultural investment abroad in achieving food security for wheat crop in Egypt. The total quantity of virtual waters acquired from imports and Egyptian agricultural investment abroad to achieve the complete level of food security coefficient (1.0) for wheat was estimated. It ranges between the lowest value of 2.9 billion Cubic meters, and highest value of 11.7 billion cubic meters, valued about 3.7 billion Egyptian Pounds, at 95% degree of confidence. Based on the above results, this work recommends the following: 1) Supporting the research authorities to develop a new wheat crop which require less quantities of irrigation water. 2) implementation of modern irrigation systems that reduce irrigation water losses in agriculture. And 3) Adopting agricultural policy that balances between the local production, trade and the external agricultural investment together with optimization of the return from the water unit used in the agricultural.