The product water footprint ( WF) is defined as the direct and indirect consumption of water
resources in the process of product production． The complete water consumption of agricultural products
includes the direct water consumption of crops in the field and the indirect consumption of relevant inputs
in the crop production supply-chain． However，previous studies on the WF of agricultural products only
focused on the direct water consumption in the field． Here，within the framework of WF standard
quantification and life cycle method，a quantitative framework for the supply-chain based water footprint
( SWF) of agricultural products production that indicated both indirect and direct water consumption
along the raw material-to-product chain at an intra-national level was proposed． Then，the SWFs of wheat
and its processed products ( wheat flour and wheat bran) in mainland China's provinces in 2016 was
quantified． Ｒesults showed that the national average SWF of wheat production was 4 869 m 3 /t，and the
indirect WF related to means of production accounted for 6% of the total SWF of wheat． The SWFs of
wheat flour and wheat bran production were 3 781 m 3 /t and 11 037 m 3 /t，respectively． There was
significant spatial heterogeneity in the intensity and composition of the SWF of wheat and derived products
production，and the contribution of the indirect blue WF of Fujian wheat to the total blue WF reached
25%． The results can provide a scientific basis for comprehensively analyzing the internal relationship
between agricultural and industrial water input among regions and for formulating reasonable water
resources allocation scheme and implementing the stratagem of“deciding production by water”．
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