Sure. 

you have to considered  the consumed quota of water for agricultural purposes as part of the country water budget.of course you will arrive at conclusion based on estimates

Dear Manohar,

This is an extremely interesting topic. I am currently working on how water footprint (WF) could be used in urban and regionl planning, referring to prof. Hoekstra work

(i.e. http://waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/Hoekstra-Mekonnen-2012-WaterFootprint-of-Humanity.pdf ).

To my understanding and limited experience, I would answer 'yes' to your question. Probably, the main obstacles that we are facing when adopting the WF approach is the lack of detailed and updated data (which, sadly, applies to every kind of footprint). Because of this, I would develop this approach in countries where water accounting is a widely agreed priority. Living in Australia, I think that this country could be considered an interesting case study for many reasons. Briefly, it is exposed to the threats of climate change, it is a developed country and there are significant investments in database management, and water accounting (please see http://www.bom.gov.au/water/standards/wasb/wasbawas.shtml as example). Plus, there are organised catchment areas (e.g. http://www.mdba.gov.au/ ).

I admit my ignorance about the global agricultural trade you are considering. However, if the WF can be used as sustainability indicator, this can apply to many areas such as the agricultural production of goods (considering how water is used, for this). In order to proceed this way, I think -again- that the selection of a suitable key study is what makes the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful experimental application of this approach (water footprint to measure the suitability of agricultural production of goods, in a specific region or city -or country).

I reckon mine is quite a generic answer, however I hope this can be of any help.

I am now developing my PhD thesis considering how footprints can support sustainable planning. I guess we are headed in a similar direction, though on different paths.

All the best,

Umberto

You have touched a rather ignored aspect of environmental management. In agricultural system quantum of water wasted is much more than water used. While working for WF this aspect must be taken care of.

it is a simple fact that some watersheds have less water available than others.  those with less water should be the subject of more active water management - at the watershed level at least.  This moves quickly beyond simply counting the litres used although this is a good start.

See also the ISO 14046 standard, which deals with water inventory and management. This standard is quite technical, so there is at least one working group investigating ways to interpret and use it: http://wulca-waterlca.org/