Latin American Agricultural Trade: The Role of the WTO in Sustainable Virtual Water Flows, European Association of Agricultural Economists

International agricultural trade has been growing significantly during the last decade. Many countries rely on imports to ensure adequate food supplies to the people. A few are becoming food baskets of the world. This process raises issues about the food security in depending countries and potentially unsustainable land and water use in exporting countries. In this paper, we analyse the impacts of amplified farm trade on natural resources, especially water. Farm exports and imports of five Latin America countries (Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Chile) are examined carefully. A preliminary analysis indicates that virtual water imports can save valuable water resources in water-short countries, such as Mexico and Chile. Major exporting countries, including Brazil and Argentina, have become big exporters due to abundant natural resource endowments. The opportunity costs of agricultural production in those countries are identified as being low, because of the predominant green water use. It is concluded that virtual water trade can be a powerful tool to alleviate water stress in semi-arid countries. However, for exporting nations a sustainable water use can only be guaranteed if environmental production costs are fully reflected in the commodity prices. There is no basis for erecting environmental trade tariffs on exporters though. Setting up legal foundations for them in full compliance with WTOs processes would be a daunting task

Revisiting the demand of agricultural insurance: the case of Spain

We use the actual insurance records of 52,300 farmers and 11 years to estimate two sets of insurance demands. We define measures of insurance’s expected returns, variance and third moment, based on observed insurance data, and infer the expected returns for those farmers that have never had an indemnity. We estimate several probit models and count models for the insuring vs non-insuring strategies, in which the economic returns of insurance and its two measures of dispersion enter as explanatory variables. Results show that farmers’ insurance strategies are largely explained by their actual insurance experience as captured by these three variables. Individuals with loss rations greater than 1 do not show more responsiveness that those facing more balanced premium charges. Results show that adverse selection may not be a major source of inefficiency in the Spanish insurance system

Dimensión política y de gestión de la Huella Hídrica

El ciclo hidrológico proporciona anualmente 110,000 Km3 en forma de precipitaciones de lluvia y nieve (L'Vovich et al., 1990). Globalmente, el 37% de esas precipitaciones se destina a alimentar ríos, acuíferos, lagos y otros sistemas acuáticos, mientras que el 63% restante, se almacena en la reserva de agua del suelo y contribuye a mantener la productividad primaria de los sistemas agrícolas y forestales. Según las distintas estimaciones, el volumen de agua que actualmente se extrae de los sistemas acuáticos para uso humano a escala global varía entre 3100 y 4400 Km3 (Postel et al., 1996; Rosegrant et al., 2002; Falkenmark y Rockström, 2004; Oki y Kanae 2006; Gleick et al., 2008). Teniendo en cuenta que la cantidad de agua que puede ser captada de forma sostenible de estos sistemas es de aproximadamente 10.200 Km3 (Postel et al., 1996), la apropiación actual de este recurso representa en torno al 31 y 44%

Dynamics in the governance of collective irrigation systems: Evidence from field experiments in Nicaragua.

The objective of this study is to analyze the common pool resource appropriation and public good provisiondecisions in a dynamic setting, testing the differences in behavior and performance between lab and field subjects. We performeda total of 45 games in Nicaragua, including 88 villagers in rural communities and 92 undergraduate students. In order to analyze sequential decision making, we introduce a dynamic and asymmetric irrigation game that combines the typical social dilemmas associated to irrigation systems management.In addition, in 9 out of 22 villagers’ groups, we implemented a treatment that included the disclosure of subjects’ appropriation of the common pool resource. The results reveal that the provision of individuals’ appropriation level results in higher appropriation in subsequent rounds. In addition, the results show that non-treated villagers provide more public good than treated villagers but if compared with students the differences are not significant. The results also suggest that appropriation levels are below the Nash prediction of full appropriation, but above the social efficient level. This results in an efficiency loss in the game that can be explained to a large extent by individual decisions on appropriation and public good contribution and by group appropriation behavior

Evaluación de un seguro agrario mediante opciones reales

En este estudio se aplica la teoría de opciones reales para valorar, desde la óptica del productor, un seguro de rentas contra la caída de los precios de patata en origen. Este seguro fue ofrecido en cinco provincias españolas en 2003 y 2004. Se trata de un seguro índice que no toma como referencia el precio de venta del suscriptor del seguro, sino un índice de precios de patata en el que figuran diversos mercados nacionales e internacionales. Al estar totalmente desligado de los resultados de la explotación que contrata el seguro, sus características lo hacen asimilable a una opción de venta. Los resultados muestran que el seguro es poco atractivo para los productores de patata. El carácter cíclico inter-anual de los precios en origen de patata plantea dificultades para fijar las primas del seguro sobre una base actuarial y que resulten atractivas a los productores. Ello podría explicar la débil acogida que ha tenido el seguro. Otra razón es el riesgo básico existente entre el índice y el precio de venta real

Cambio climático y efectos sobre la agricultura: la sequía

•Mitigación del CC: reducción de emisiones de GEI. –Ejemplos: energías renovables/ Agricultura ecológica •Adaptación: estrategias para combatir/atenuar los efectos del CC –Protección en zonas costeras/ Mercados de agua

Los riesgos agrarios: el mundo gaussiano vs. el cisne negro

Los seguros agrarios y otros instrumentos deben potenciar la gestión de riesgos gaussianos. •Los seguros crecer gradualmente asentando líneas sencillas •El sector privado debe ser el principal asegurador •Se pueden combinar indexados con seguros de daños •La intervención del Estado debe dirigirse a: Crear bases de datos consistentes (información) Crear un marco institucional adecuado Subvencionar seguros al inici

Modelling spot water markets under uncertain water supply

Water availability in semiarid regions usually exhibits patterns of extreme variability. Even in intensively controlled basins, some users are subject to low levels of water reliability, and more vulnerable to periods of extreme scarcity. To reduce their risk exposure more flexible instruments, such as voluntary exchanges of water among users, are required. Recent changes in the Spanish water Law have given an initial impulse to allow for leases of water use rights. Properly designed and monitored, this instrument provides some flexibility to water management, and may increase the economic use efficiency as well as mitigate the adverse economic effects of droughts. This paper looks at the risks and uncertainty dimensions of water markets, which have not been paid much attention in the literature. It analyses, from theoretical and empirical standpoints, the role that uncertainty plays in market participants’ decisions and its impact on gains from trade. Two models have been developed to carry out the empirical application. One is a stochastic and two-stage discreet programming model which simulates irrigators behaviour and the other is a spatial equilibrium model to compute market exchange and equilibrium. Water market price endogeneity is solved by an iterative process, which characterise price uncertainty from the results obtained from the spatial equilibrium model. Hydrological risk is characterised at the irrigation farm level through the variation of the water allowances served for irrigation. The application is performed on eleven irrigated farms in a district of the Guadalquivir Valley (Southern Spain). It is shown how water availability uncertainty reduces farmers’ benefits because of the fact that they must take ex – ante decisions. However, if market participation is allowed once water allowances become known, even at an uncertain price, the benefit losses are partly mitigated. From a methodological standpoint, these results suggest that the agricultural water market benefits estimates found in the literature may be undervalued as a result of omitting the option to participate in the market in the mix of possible strategies. Exchanging water in annual spot markets allows for the reduction of farmers’ economic vulnerability caused by the variability and uncertainty of water supply within an irrigation season

La economía del agua en España. Entre lo público y lo privado, la difícil búsqueda del interés general

Not available.<br><br>Toda política económica debe ser enjuiciada con arreglo a su eficacia en la defensa y promoción del interés general. Para enjuiciar la economía política del agua en España, se propone una definición de interés general que integra la provisión de bienes públicos, la promoción de actividades económicas sin efectos externos negativos sobre otros usuarios o sobre el medio ambiente y la reducción de los riesgos asociados con los recursos hídricos. Este trabajo analiza siete postulados de fuerte arraigo en la literatura española en el campo de la política y la economía del agua y enjuicia su compatibilidad con la defensa del interés general. La conclusión central a la que se llega es que tales postulados se muestran relativamente incompatibles con el objetivo de promover el interés general

La coordinación de planes de cuencas transfronterizas

En el trabajo se pretende analizar el problema de los ríos que cruzan administraciones desde una doble perspectiva. En primer lugar, se hace un análisis del nuevo cosmopolitanismo que propugna una visión de los problemas globales ambientales que, yendo más allá de las nociones simples de globalización, debe superar la visión de soberanía basada en el estado nación. Esta visión, ambiciosa y adelantada en el tiempo, que tiene una plasmación clara en cómo se ha de entender la gestión del agua en ríos que cruzan fronteras. La segunda perspectiva, de corte más práctico aplicado, analiza las implicaciones de la Directiva Marco del Agua (DMA) en el ámbito de la planificación sostenible de las demarcaciones hidrográficas. El análisis pretende asentarse en aspectos sencillos como la búsqueda de programas efectivos en coste y la simple aplicación de principios económicos y de gestión ambiental