ABSTRACT
The concept and practice of virtual water trade and activities of agri-business corporations have caught the attention of academia around the world for their implications for global food and water security (Cousin, 2012; Kumar, 2012; Sojamo et al., 2012). In this chapter, we will fi rst discuss the recent trends in global agribusiness wherein the dominance of western agri-business corporations in international food trade are being challenged by China and some oil-rich countries of the Middle East. Subsequently, an examination is made to fi nd whether this can be treated as an attempt by the rising southeastern economic powers to establish hegemony over global virtual water trade and whether this has any signifi cance for the global water security. This is done in the light of the received wisdom about the real determinants of what governs global virtual water trade and the emerging scenario with regard to changing global land-use patterns. Particularly, critical examination is made on the claim regarding the growing foreign direct investment on land in Africa by the emerging Asian and Arab economies; and their increased competition over the sources of global food supplies is a strategy to challenge the western hegemony over ‘international virtual water fl ow.’ We further examine whether the ongoing power shift in the global food market from the industrialized West to the industrializing East would provide any new governance architecture for water security and stewardship of water resources.
