Sum Insured Determination for Cereal, Citrus and Vineyards in the Spanish Agricultural Insurance System.

In general, insurance is a form of risk management used to hedge against a contingent loss. The conventional definition is the equitable transfer of a risk of loss from one entity to another in exchange for a premium or a guaranteed and quantifiable small loss to prevent a large and possibly devastating loss being agricultural insurance a special line of property insurance. Agriculture insurance, as actually are designed in the Spanish scenario, were established in 1978. At the macroeconomic insurance studies scale, it is necessary to know a basic element for the insurance actuarial components: sum insured. When a new risk assessment has to be evaluated in the insurance framework, it is essential to determinate venture capital in the total Spanish agriculture. In this study, three different crops (cereal, citrus and vineyards) cases are showed to determinate sum insured as they are representative of the cases found in the Spanish agriculture. Crop sum insured is calculated by the product of crop surface, unit surface production and crop price insured. In the cereal case, winter as spring cereal sowing, represents the highest Spanish crop surface, above to 6 millions of hectares (ha). Meanwhile, the four citrus species (oranges, mandarins, lemons and grapefruits) occupied an extension just over 275.000 ha. On the other hand, vineyard target to wine process shows almost one million of ha in Spain.

Tower of Martín González or castle of La Raya (Soria): territory, history, defense and construction / La torre de Martín González o castillo de La Raya (Soria): territorio, historia, defensa y construcción

Abstract The Tower of Martín González, also known as castle of La Raya, is placed in the actual border between the Spanish provinces of Soria and Zaragoza and in the historical limit between the Crowns of Castile and Aragon: this is the reason for its name. The castle dominates the hedge of the plain-moors that surround the Valley of Nágima River. It is a castle with courtyard and a high tower in the western flank. The paper analyzes the castle in four main levels. All references about the castle are studied to draw a historical narration and to relate with the territory and other fortifications, both Castilian and Aragonese. Despite its advanced state of ruin, it preserves many rests that allow making an analysis of its defensive elements and constructive aspects. Resumen La torre de Martín González, también conocida como el castillo de La Raya, se sitúa en el límite actual entre las provincias de Soria y Zaragoza y en el límite histórico entre las coronas de Castilla y Aragón. Domina el extremo de los páramos que circundan el río Nágima. Es un castillo de tipo torrejón con patio de armas y una torre del homenaje adosada a su flanco occidental. El análisis contempla cuatro niveles fundamentales para el entendimiento de la arquitectura fortificada. La comunicación revisa la documentación existente sobre los elementos históricos que se ponen en relación, mediante el análisis territorial, con el sistema fortificado de frontera. A pesar de su avanzado estado de ruina, conserva restos que permiten realizar una lectura interpretativa de sus elementos defensivos y de sus aspectos constructivos.