Abstract:Based on Penman-Monteith Equation,this paper measures the green water footprint,blue water footprint and grey water footprint of food crop in 31 provinces of China by using CROPWAT software,and then evaluates water consumption,water demand for ecological restoration and water use efficiency of food production.The result shows that firstly,there are significant regional differences of water quantity and type consumed by wheat,maize and rice.Henan and Shandong provinces have high water consumption for food production,and Zhejiang and Fujian provinces have relatively low water consumption.In addition,the provinces with abundant precipitation,such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang,have a higher proportion of green water consumption in the total water use,while provinces such as Shaanxi and Gansu,which are short of water resources,have a high proportion of blue water consumption in the total water use.Secondly,the amount of grey water footprint of food crop has a rising trend on the whole between 1998 and 2013,and the amount of grey water footprint of rice is the highest among the three crops.Specifically,the areas with large amount of grey water footprint are mainly located in northeastern China,northern China,eastern China and central China,which shows that these areas have a greater water demand for environmental restoration.Finally,water footprint intensity of food crop has a downward trend in recent years,which indicates that water use efficiency is improving.In addition,the results of spatial analysis show that water footprint intensity has a significant global and local positive spatial autocorrelation.Specifically,compared with northwestern and northern China,the areas of southwest China,eastern China and southern China have relatively lower water footprint intensity,and this indicates water use efficiency in these areas is relatively higher.