*3.1. Virtual Water Contents of the Commodities*

We start with a brief background on the importance of each crop in Pakistan's agriculture by comparing its harvested area to the total harvested area (Table 2) (Appendix A contains a more detailed analysis of Pakistan's agricultural trade; Figures A1 and A2). The analysis shows that crop harvested area in Pakistan is dominated by wheat (42%), seed cotton (14%), rice (12%) and sugar crops (5%) during 1990–2016 (Table 2). Table 2 also compares Pakistan's average yields of the agricultural commodities with global average yields during 1990–2016 (columns 2–3). Except for tobacco (where Pakistan produces a higher yield than many other countries) and cotton lint (where yield in Pakistan is equal to global yield), Pakistan's yields of all the commodities are considerably lower than the corresponding global averages. The yield gap is significantly higher for two crop groups, that is, other cereals and oilseed crops, where yields in Pakistan are 11% and 36% of the global average yields over this period. For livestock production, Pakistan's yield (kg/animal) of mutton (goat and sheep meat) and poultry (chicken meat) are relatively close to the global averages, whereas beef (buffalo and cattle meat) yield is also significantly (39%) lower than the worldwide level. The small agricultural yields are mainly due to poor irrigation water management, lack of advanced methods and quality inputs, fragmented land holdings and inadequate institutional support to the farmers. The relative lower yields of most of the commodities show that agricultural productivity in Pakistan can be substantially improved, which, due to an inverse relationship with VWC, can lower VWC for these commodities. In the absence of such productivity improvements, Pakistan will face the challenge of reducing agricultural exports or increased pressure on water resources.


**Table 2.** Average shares in total harvest area, yields and virtual water content (blue, green, total, ratios of blue/green) of major agricultural commodities produced in Pakistan (1990–2016).

<sup>1</sup> Crop yields are in tons/ha; meat yields are kg/animal. <sup>2</sup> Share in harvested area is for seed cotton. <sup>3</sup> Share in harvested area is for both sugarcane and sugar beet. <sup>4</sup> Unmanufactured tobacco. Source: Authors' calculations based on data from Reference [39] (trade volumes) and sources mentioned in the Methods section (VWC).

VWC for the studied agricultural commodities changes with the yearly fluctuation in yield of each commodity. Although annual blue and green VWCs were used for estimating the trade in virtual water in respective years, we report the average VWC (over 1990–2016) for all the commodities (Table 2). The total virtual water contents for the crops vary widely from 491 m3/ton for vegetables to as high as 6974 m3/ton for cotton lint (Table 2, column 6). The VWC for livestock sectors is far higher than the ones for crops, ranging between 5487 m3/ton for poultry to 18,584 m3/ton for beef. Except for oilseed crops, palm oil and tea, blue VWC constitutes much higher shares in the total VWC for both crops and

livestock sectors. Notably, for the major crops (wheat, rice and sugar) the percentage of blue VWC in the total VWC ranges between 80% and 86%, indicating very high dependence of these crops on irrigation in Pakistan. The analysis shows that the efforts aimed at improving yields and lowering VWC can significantly lower irrigation water requirements for agricultural commodities in Pakistan.
