| The Yellow River has a long development history. It is not only the birthplace ofChinese nation, but also the center of Chinese civilization. The Yellow Riverirrigation has developed vigorously since the founding of New China, and the YellowRiver irrigated areas have been the important grain and cotton production base andindustrial base. Since the1980s, with the rapid development of society and economy,the consumption of water resources increased rapidly. The drought occurredfrequently in recent years, and the supply-demand contradiction is increasing strainedbecause of the climate variation and human activities.People’s Victory Canal irrigated area locates in the Yellow River, it’s the firstlarge-scale gravity flow Yellow River irrigated area after the founding of New China.It’s not only an important pillar of the core area of food in Henan Province, but alsoan important support for the development of industry and agriculture, it plays animportant role in safeguarding the security of Henan province and even the country.With the development of society in recent years, the demand of water resourcesincreased rapidly, but inflow of the important water sources along the Yellow Riverregion decreased continuously. Most of the traditional water-saving measures isapplied by means of engineering or technical means,“virtual water trade” is used toalleviate water crisis as a non-engineering mean in water-poor countries or regions, ithas become a hot study topic by domestic and foreign scholars in recent years.This paper based on the analysis of problems in effective utilization ofagricultural water resources and agricultural planting structure in the People’s VictoryCanal, using virtual water theory to constant the adjustment of the agricultural plantstructure, aiming at increasing the utilization efficiency and benefit of waterresource. The main contents and conclusions are as follows:(1) Introduced the virtual water theory systematically, including the concept,connotation, features, quantitative method and the virtual water trade status at homeand abroad. And elaborated the feasibility and necessity of implementing virtual water trade in China in detail on the premise of ensuring grain security.(2) The virtual water content of the major crops in People’s Victory Canal werequantified and analyzed, the virtual water content of cotton, rape, rice, peanut, wheatand corn were:6764.54m3/kg,1809.83m3/kg,1027.49m3/kg,884.43m3/kg,746.05m3/kg and657.26m3/kg, respectively. Then analysed the crop planting structure, itconsidered that the virtual water content of cotton, rape and rice were relatively large.So from the perspective of virtual water trade, rates of these three crops should beproperly reduced.(3) Considering the economic, social and ecological benefits in People’sVictory Canal, established a multi-objective optimization model for planting structurein order to improve economic benefit in irrigation, and protect the ecologicalenvironment at the same time. A two-step interactive optimization algorithm was usedto solve this model because of its simple and practical. In the human-computerinteractive process, decision makers could give more rational preference information,so it’s helpful to get the satisfactory solution. Based on the optimization results,analysed the planting structure in People’s Victory Canal.(4) Adjusted the optimization results further guiding by the virtual water theory.Since the virtual water content of cotton, rice and rape in People’s Victory Canal arerelatively large, and higher than the national average, so considered to carry out thevirtual water trade against them, reduce their planting acreage, and buy from otherplaces where fertilize them to meet local needs. The rates of wheat, corn and peanutwere increased, since their virtual water contents were relatively low. However,considering about the current agriculture situation in irrigated area, implemented thevirtual water trade against cotton and rice ultimately, and did not continue to increasethe proportion of wheat. By setting different trade schemes, obtained the optimalplanting program based on analysising the comprehensive benefits and the savingirrigation water. The final optimization scheme showed the planting area of each cropwere: wheat80,600hm2, corn45600hm2, rice12,500hm2, cotton10200hm2, peanut20300hm2and rape10,500hm2.The results showed that, through implementing virtual water trade in People’sVictory Canal, the planting structure has been optimized in irrigation area, the economic value increased by236.7million, the social values increased by138.7million, the ecological benefits value increased by compared354.8million, and savedwater36,505,800m3compared with present situation. The grain output upped to871million kg, so the irrigation area can achieve the national goal of long term plan forfood security. Thus, under the premise of ensuring food security, the implementationof virtual water trade can transfer water through grain trade from the regions wherehave high water use efficiency to the regions where have low water use efficiency, thecost of water transferring is saved, the total benefits is increased and the water useefficiency is enhanced through non-structural measures. |
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