Thirsty Crops and Virtual Water Flows–Making Sense of the Economically Invisible Water Flows

Water for irrigation constitutes the highest freshwater demand in any country. For a monsoon-fed country like India, variations in precipitation lead to severe repercussions in the agricultural economy. Water security in India has historically been approached by creating more storage capacity and increasing the supply. Can managing the demand for water be an approach to the challenge of water security? What could be the basis for managing the demand? This article revisits the concepts of virtual water flow and water footprint, toexamine their applicability in today’s context. The present author has applied the concepts in a dip-stick manner on fruit and sugar export from Maharashtra, India. The quantity of water flowing out of Maharashtra from such exports was assessed. The results showa remarkable quantity ofscarce water being diverted to foreign lands. This article also discusses the use of these concepts in water policies to nudge the farmers into making choices appropriate for the region