Essays on climate change, agriculture and production efficiency

Climate change would likely pose significant challenges to agriculture. Previous assessments of the effect of climate change on agriculture show that developing countries are more vulnerable than developed countries. In this thesis, we contribute to the existing debate on the economic effects of climate change on land rents and production decisions. In the first chapter, we assess the capitalisation of climate change on land rental prices and net revenues of Mexican farms. Using cross-section data on the same farmsteads, we discover that using net revenues or land rental prices as measures of land rents in the Ricardian Hedonic model leads to different predictions. In the second chapter, we investigate how changes in climate would likely modify current crop and livestock choices in Mexico. Taking advantage of a plot-level dataset, we examine substitution patterns among arable and non-arable activities and find that accounting for such patterns in the discrete choice models leads to radically different projections. Taking climate change as an opportunity to produce food more efficiently, we use the Stochastic Frontier approach to assess the performance of Mexican farms in the third chapter. We find that farmers can produce more using the same amount of inputs, which can partially reduce or fully offset harmful effects of climate change

¿Está el manejo comunitario de los recursos naturales inherentemente ligado a la resiliencia? Análisis de la comunidad de Santiago Comaltepec (México)

The sustainable management of forests is a current pressing need. Many communities around the world manage common pool forests and base their livelihoods on forest products. The communitybased management of natural resources approach has been often considered as a suitable approach to govern the commons. However, the application of these principles does not simply lead to harmonise development and conservation. We explore the links between community-based management of natural resources and social-ecological resilience in a Mexican indigenous community by: 1) analysing the trade-offs between environmentally sound forest management and socio-economic sustainability; 2) identifying the local strategies to face local, national and international challenges and analysing how they contribute to the socialecological resilience; and 3) reflecting about how the current situation might affect future social-ecological resilience. The results showed that land and forests are sustainably managed from an environmental perspective, but current social and economic pressures, within and outside the community, represent a serious threat to the traditional common management and sustainability cultureEl manejo sostenible de los bosques es hoy día más urgente que nunca. A nivel global existen muchos bosques gestionados por comunidades que dependen de ellos para su supervivencia. El manejo comunitario de recursos naturales es considerado como un enfoque adecuado para la gestión de bienes comunes. Sin embargo, la aplicación de estos principios no necesariamente ha conseguido aunar los principios de conservación de la naturaleza y desarrollo de las comunidades que realizan este manejo. En este artículo se analizan las relaciones entre la gestión comunitaria de los recursos naturales y la resiliencia socioecológica en una comunidad indígena mejicana. Para ello: 1) se exploran las relaciones entre gestión ambientalmente sostenible del bosque y sostenibilidad socioeconómica; 2) se identifican las estrategias locales frente a desafíos locales, nacionales e internacionales y se analiza como las mismas contribuyen a la resiliencia socioecológica y 3) se reflexiona sobre las principales amenazas a esta resiliencia socioecológica. Los resultados muestran que en la comunidad se está haciendo un manejo ambientalmente sostenible, pero que las actuales presiones sociales y económicas representan una seria amenaza al manejo tradicional colectivo y a la cultura de la sostenibilidad existente en la comunida

Can scenario-planning support community-based natural resource management? Experiences from three countries in latin america

Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) is a concept critical to managing socio-ecological systems, but whose implementation needs strengthening. Scenario-planning is one approach that may offer benefits relevant to CBNRM, but whose potential is not yet well understood. We therefore designed, trialled and evaluated a scenario-planning method intended to support CBNRM at three cases, located in Colombia, Mexico and Argentina. Implementing scenario-planning was judged as worthwhile in all three cases, although aspects of it could be challenging to facilitate. The benefits generated were relevant to strengthening CBNRM: encouraging the participation of local people and using their knowledge; enhanced consideration and adaption of future change; and supporting the development of systems thinking. Tracing exactly when and how these benefits arise is challenging, but two elements of the method seemed particularly useful. Firstly, using a systematic approach to discuss how drivers of change may affect local socio-ecological systems helped to foster systems thinking and identify connections between issues. Secondly, explicitly focusing on how to use and respond to scenarios helped identify specific practical activities ('response options') that would support CBNRM despite the pressures of future change. Discussions about response options also highlighted the need for support by other actors (e.g. policy groups): this raises the question of when and how other actors and other sources of knowledge should be involved in scenario-planning, so as to encourage their buy-in to actions identified by the process. We suggest other CBNRM initiatives may benefit from adapting and applying scenario-planning. However, these initiatives should be carefully monitored since further research is required to understand how and when scenario-planning methods may produce benefits, and their strengths and weaknesses versus other methods

Impacto de la crisis en el sector agropecuario en México.

The present work has as aim introduce the reader to the problem of the impacts of the crisis in the agricultural sector of Mexico. A reflection is done on the planetary crisis of 2009, taking it as the point of item of the analysis. Later, is explained which has been the evolution of the sector during the last years up to coming to the period of the economic conjuncture. The agricultural Mexican sector has stayed behind in the area of importance of the economy of this country. Inside the principal results of the work it is possible to emphasize that the agricultural sector every time has minor relative importance in term of production. In addition, it shows differentiated effects and the consequences on the labor markets demonstrate as loss of employment and precarización of the same one and it possesses fewer resources to finance his development, which turns it less competitive. here are done a brief analysis of the world recent crisis and the experiences of several countries; there are analyzed his evolution and the effects of the economic contraction in the agricultural sector in Mexico and they present some results econométricos and the possible scenes of the sector and some conclusions offer.El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo introducir al lector al problema de los impactos de la crisis en el sector agropecuario de México. Se hace una reflexión sobre la crisis planetaria de 2009, tomándola como el punto de partida del análisis. Posteriormente, se explica cuál ha sido la evolución del sector durante los últimos años hasta llegar al periodo de la coyuntura económica. El sector agropecuario mexicano se ha rezagado en el ámbito de importancia de la economía de ese país. Dentro de los principales resultados del trabajo se puede destacar que el sector agropecuario cada vez tiene menor importancia relativa en término de producción. Además, muestra efectos diferenciados y las consecuencias en los mercados de trabajo se manifiestan como pérdida de empleo y precarización del mismo y cuenta con menos recursos para financiar su desarrollo, lo que lo vuelve menos competitivo. Se hace un breve análisis de la crisis mundial reciente y las experiencias de varios países; se analiza su evolución y los efectos de la contracción económica en el sector agropecuario en México y se presentan algunos resultados econométricos y los posibles escenarios del sector y se ofrecen algunas conclusiones

Administración municipal y marginación

Se realiza el estudio sobre la capacidad de gestión pública y su relación con las condiciones de marginación de 28 municipios del Estado de Hidalgo, distribuidos en las regiones del Valle del Mezquital y la Cuenca de México, mediante un instrumento que aborda el seguimiento al plan de desarrollo, el plan de urbanización, la financiación del desarrollo social, especialización en actividades industriales, ambiente laboral y obligaciones en términos de políticas públicas determinando un 100%, 80%, 60%, 100%, 90% y100% respectivamente; lo que permite inducir que existe un comportamiento positivo respecto a la gestión. El análisis de Chi- cuadrada arroja significancia para las primeras variables analizadas, lo que permite determinar que los posicionamientos y acciones de los gobiernos locales, la actividad económica y, específicamente, la especialización de las economías locales, representan factores fundamentales en el nivel de ingresos de los agentes, y por ende, en su grado de marginación

In silico search, chemical characterization and immunogenic evaluation of amino-terminated G4-PAMAM-HIV peptide complexes using three-dimensional models of the HIV-1 gp120 protein

Peptide epitopes have been widely used to develop synthetic vaccines and immunotherapies. However, peptide epitopes may exhibit poor absorption or immunogenicity due to their low molecular weights. Conversely, fourth-generation polyamidoamine (G4-PAMAM) dendrimers are nonimmunogenic and relatively nontoxic synthetic nanoparticles that have been used as adjuvants and nanocarriers of small peptides and to improve nasal absorption. Based on this information, we hypothesized that the combination of intranasal immunization and G4-PAMAM dendrimers would be useful for enhancing the antibody responses of HIV-1 gp120 peptide epitopes. Therefore, we first used structural data, peptide epitope predictors and docking and MD simulations on MHC-II to identify two peptide epitopes on the CD4 binding site of HIV-1 gp120. The formation of G4-PAMAM-peptide complexes was evaluated in silico (molecular docking studies using different G4-PAMAM conformations retrieved from MD simulations as well as the MMGBSA approach) and validated experimentally (electrophoresis, 1H NMR and cryo-TEM). Next, the G4-PAMAM dendrimer-peptide complexes were administered intranasally to groups of female BALB/cJ mice. The results showed that both peptides were immunogenic at the systemic and mucosal levels (nasal and vaginal), and G4-PAMAM dendrimer-peptide complexes improved IgG and IgA responses in serum and nasal washes. Thus, G4-PAMAM dendrimers have potential for use as adjuvants and nanocarriers of peptides.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio