Water-Energy-Food Nexus Approach to Assess Crop Trading in Saudi Arabia

Mohammad Tamim Kashifi, Fahad Saleh Mohammed Al-Ismail, Shakhawat Chowdhury, Hassan M. Baaqeel, Md Shafiullah, Surya Prakash Tiwari and Syed Masiur Rahman
Additional contact information
Mohammad Tamim Kashifi: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Fahad Saleh Mohammed Al-Ismail: Applied Research Center for Environment & Marine Studies, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Shakhawat Chowdhury: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Hassan M. Baaqeel: Department of Chemical Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Md Shafiullah: Interdisciplinary Research Center for Renewable Energy and Power Systems, Dahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Surya Prakash Tiwari: Applied Research Center for Environment & Marine Studies, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Syed Masiur Rahman: Applied Research Center for Environment & Marine Studies, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: Water scarcity is a global challenge, especially in arid regions, including Middle Eastern and North African countries. The distribution of water around the earth is not even. Trading water in the form of an embedded commodity, known as the water footprint ( WF ), from water-abundant regions to water-scarce regions, is a viable solution to water scarcity problems. Agricultural products account for approximately 85% of the earth’s total WF , indicating that importing water-intense crops, such as cereal crops, can partially solve the local water scarcity problem. This study investigated water, energy, and food nexus dynamics for the trades of a few major crops, specifically considering Saudi Arabia. It analyzed the trade of crops and its impact on WF , energy, and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emission savings. The findings revealed that importing major cereal crops to Saudi Arabia could significantly reduce the local WF . The imports of wheat, maize, rice, and barley reduced approximately 24 billion m 3 per year of consumable WF (i.e., blue and green water footprint) in the global scale. Similarly, the trade of major crops had a significant impact on energy and CO 2 emission savings. The energy savings from the wheat, maize, and barley trades in Saudi Arabia was estimated to be approximately 9 billion kWh. It also saved about 7 million tons per year of CO 2 emissions. The trades of cereal crops in Saudi Arabia reduced water consumption, energy usage, and CO 2 emissions significantly.

Keywords: water footprint; agricultural product; energy footprint; carbon dioxide emission; water-energy-food nexus (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/6/3494/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/6/3494/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:6:p:3494-:d:772579

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().