Impacts and adaptive capacity as drivers for prioritizing agricultural adaptation to climate change in Europe

In the face of likely climate change impacts policy makers at different spatial scales need access to assessment tools that enable informed policy instruments to be designed. Recent scientific advances have facilitated the development of improved climate projections, but it remains to be seen whether these are translated into effective adaptation strategies. This paper uses existing databases on climate impacts on European agriculture and combines them with an assessment of adaptive capacity to develop an interdisciplinary approach for prioritising policies. It proposes a method for identifying relevant policies for different EU countries that are representative of various agroclimatic zones. Our analysis presents a framework for integrating current knowledge of future climate impacts with an understanding of the underlying socio-economic, agricultural and environmental traits that determine a region’s capacity for adapting to climate change.

Some techniques for automated, resource-aware distributed and mobile computing in a multi-paradigm programming system

Distributed parallel execution systems speed up applications by splitting tasks into processes whose execution is assigned to different receiving nodes in a high-bandwidth network. On the distributing side, a fundamental problem is grouping and scheduling such tasks such that each one involves sufñcient computational cost when compared to the task creation and communication costs and other such practical overheads. On the receiving side, an important issue is to have some assurance of the correctness and characteristics of the code received and also of the kind of load the particular task is going to pose, which can be specified by means of certificates. In this paper we present in a tutorial way a number of general solutions to these problems, and illustrate them through their implementation in the Ciao multi-paradigm language and program development environment. This system includes facilities for parallel and distributed execution, an assertion language for specifying complex programs properties (including safety and resource-related properties), and compile-time and run-time tools for performing automated parallelization and resource control, as well as certification of programs with resource consumption assurances and efñcient checking of such certificates.

Evolution not revolution of farming systemswill best feed and green the world

The challenge to properly feed a world population of 9.2 billion by 2050, that must be achieved on essentially currently cropped area, requires that food production be increased by 70%. This large increase can only be achieved by combinations of greater crop yields and more intensive cropping adapted to local conditions and availability of inputs. Farming systems are dynamic and continuously adapt to changing ecological, environmental and social conditions, while achieving greater production and resource-use efficiency by application of science and technology. This article argues that the solution to feed and green the world in 2050 is to support this evolution more strongly by providing farmers with necessary information, inputs, and recognition. There is no revolutionary alternative. Proposals to transform agriculture to low-input and organic systems would, because of low productiv- ity, exacerbate the challenge if applied in small part, and ensure failure if applied more widely. The challenge is, however, great. Irrigation, necessary to increase cropping intensity in many areas cannot be extended much more widely than at present, and it is uncertain if the current rate of crop yield increase can be maintained. Society needs greater recognition of the food-supply problem and must increase funding and support for agricultural research while it attends to issues of food waste and over consumption that can make valuable reductions to food demand from agriculture

Determinants of Financial Capital Use: Review of theories and implications for rural businesses. Factor Markets Working Paper No. 19, February 2012

This paper presents a review of financial economics literature and offers a comprehensive discussion and systematisation of determinants of financial capital use. In congruence with modern financial literature, it is acknowledged here that real and financial capital decisions are interdependent. While the fundamental role of the (unconstrained) demand for real capital in the demand for finance is acknowledged, the deliverable focuses on three complementary categories of the determinants of financial capital use: i) capital market imperfections; ii) factors mitigating these imperfections or their impacts; and iii) firm- and sector-related factors, which alter the severity of financial constraints and their effects. To address the question of the optimal choice of financial instruments, theories of firm capital structure are reviewed. The deliverable concludes with theory-derived implications for agricultural and non-agricultural rural business’ finance.

Economics of money and banking /

Gift.

Food supply and raw materials in Japan : an index of the physical volume of production of foodstuffs, industrial crops, and minerals, 1894-1927 /

Published in 1929 under title: Agricultural and mineral production in Japan.

Information pertaining to farm, home, and community : with special reference to type-of-farming area.

Errata sheets tipped in.

The Bureau of Home Economics : its history, activities and organization /

Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-92).

Forest Service resource bulletin WO.

Title from cover.

List of technical workers in the Department of agriculture and outline of functions of main branches of the department.

1927- compiled in the Office of personnel and business administration.

Report of the chief of the Bureau of Home Economics.

Title from caption.

1972 OBERS projections; regional economic activity in the United States; by economic area, water resources region and subarea, state, and SMSA and non-SMSA portions of the areas, historical and projected--1929-2020.

"Based on the SERIES 'E' projected national population, Bureau of the Census, 1972."

Processes for identifying regional influences of and responses to increasing atmospheric CO2 and climate change : the MINK project /

"TR052A-H."

Report of the administrator of agricultural research,

Includes the reports of the following agencies of the administration: the Bureaus of Agricultural and industrial chemistry; Animal industry; Dairy industry; Entomology and plant quarantine; Human nutrition and home economics; Plant industry, soils, and agricultural engineering; and the Office of experiment stations.

Dietary levels of households in the United States seasons and year 1965-66.

Cover title.