Assessing the costs of land degradation: a case study for the Puentes catchment,southeast Spain

Whereas many studies point out the economic benefits of controlling land degradation through sustainable land management (SLM) approaches, there is often a lack of local adoption of SLM techniques. Analysis of the local impacts and costs of land degradation is critical for understanding farmers' responses to land degradation. The objective of this paper is to analyse the local costs of land degradation in the Puentes catchment in southeast Spain. This catchment has been identified as particularly vulnerable to erosion, yet farmers show a general lack of interest in applying erosion control techniques. The paper subsequently analyses land degradation processes in the Puentes catchment, the income derived from agriculture and several other ecosystem services, and the local costs of land degradation. Erosion is widespread in the catchment, comprising sheet and rill erosion as well as gulley erosion. Relatively high erosion rates are encountered in cropland. The most important source of local income is irrigated agriculture, with revenues of up to €1350/ha y⁻¹. Dryland agriculture, hunting and herding provide additional income. The costs of erosion on cropland, calculated with a replacement method, vary from around €5/ha y⁻¹ on slopes between five per cent and ten per cent, to around €50/ha y⁻¹ on slopes between 30 per cent and 50 per cent. Except on the steepest slopes, these costs are relatively low for the farmers, which explains the limited application of erosion control techniques in the catchment. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于价值创造的企业EVA内部绩效定量评价体系构建研究

传统的企业绩效评价体系主要以会计利润为基础,忽略了股权资本的成本,很显然与以股东财富最大化为目标的现代企业制度要求相背离.作为一种以价值创造为导向的评价指标,EVA引入我国企业绩效评价实务,迫使企业必须解决如何将EVA与企业内部绩效评价体系进行整合.由于现有理论较少涉及该问题,本文试图对该问题进行探讨.本文研究认为：①在构建基于价值创造的企业EVA内部绩效定量评价体系时,企业需要关注的关键问题是保证绩效评价指标体系的内在逻辑一致性;要保证一致性,企业在构建体系过程中应遵循由建立EVA中心、EVA价值驱动因素分析、设立内部绩效评价指标和选择合理考评模式4个步骤组成的体系建立流程;构建该体系,可以采用EVA＆BSC、EVA＆预算与标准成本和EVA＆ABC这3种不同的评价模式,不同模式的选择需要考虑评价体系与方法自身的特点和企业的管理特点.     

基于改进蚁群优化算法的车间布局优化

为了实现车间布局优化的最小物流费用,对车间布局优化的问题建立二次分配模型,并采用一种改进的蚁群优化算法（最大最小蚂蚁系统）来求解二次分配模型,这种方法克服了传统的蚁群优化算法,收敛速度慢、陷入局部最优、运算时间长等缺陷。同时建立车间布局构建图,对车间布局的蚁群算法实现进行详细的描述,并引入局部搜索的方法对问题求解进行局部优化,以便实现全局最优。最后,给出一个有12个生产单元的车间布局仿真算例,运用VC＋＋6．0编程实现算法,计算结果显示,新布局方案物料搬运成本要比原布局方案节约10％。这个结果表明改进的蚁群算法在求解二次分配模型具有很好地能力,对于解决车间布局优化问题的求解是可行和有效的。     

农业机械化发展水平评价方法比较

农业机械化发展水平是反映农业机械化发展的一个重要指标,是分析、衡量农业机械化发展的基础。目前普遍使用的农业机械化作业水平是根据种植业中的"耕、种、收"生产环节的机械化程度加权平均得到的;在农业机械化作业水平的基础上,将农业劳动力占全社会从业人员的比例纳入评价范围,对农业机械化作业水平进行修正,可得到农业机械化水平;而根据农业机械作业费用占农业劳动力、畜力和机械作业总费用的比例可得到农业机械化指数。对比分析农业机械化作业水平、农业机械化水平和农业机械化指数可以发现,农业机械化作业水平由于仅考虑了种植业中的"耕、种、收"生产环节的机械化程度,没有反映农业机械对农业劳动力的替代作用,不能准确反映农业机械化发展水平,更适于评价农业机械作业情况。而农业机械化水平和农业机械化指数既包含农业机械作业情况,也包含了农业机械对农业劳动力的替代作用,因此,能够更准确地反映农业机械化发展的真实情况。但由于农业机械化水平是在现行的农业机械化作业水平基础上修正而得到的,可操作性更强。     

Assessment of the economic costs of damage caused by air-pollution

Cost-benefit analysis is one of the fundamental tools for the development of economic instruments for pollution control. The costs of various abatement measures are reasonably well characterised. However, assessment of the economic costs of pollutant impacts is less well developed. This paper reports on two studies carried out for DGXII of the European Commission, the ExternE-Project and the Green Accounting Research Project. Both studies have been performed by international, multi-disciplinary research teams.Analysis of the effects of emissions of PM₁₀, SO₂, NO_x and VOCs (as ozone precursors) has included assessment of human health, materials, crops and other terrestrial ecosystems, and freshwater fisheries. The analysis follows the impact pathway approach, linking dose-response functions, valuation data and other models. It differs significantly to earlier top-down approaches that made only very limited use of the wealth of scientific data available. Most success has been achieved in analysis of impacts on human health, building materials and crops. Significant uncertainties exist for these receptors, though these have been identified and are now being addressed. Assessment of impacts on other receptors, perhaps most notably forests, is more limited. The methodology is particularly applicable for analysis of impacts on receptors for which the critical loads approach is not appropriate.     

Landscape composition affects habitat use and foraging flight distances in breeding European starlings

The recent decline of the European starling in northern Europe has been associated with changes in agricultural land-use. We investigated how agricultural land-use affected starling habitat use and home-range size in a heterogeneous landscape in southern Sweden. Breeding starlings primarily foraged in pastures, a habitat with a high availability of potential food for nestlings. When the availability of pasture close to the nest was low, starlings increased their use of other permanently grass-covered habitats such as field margins and ditches. They also spent a larger proportion of their daytime flying because they visited more distant foraging areas. The further from the nest parents foraged, the higher was the probability that they foraged on a pasture. Feeding frequency of nestlings was negatively related to the distance from the nest parents foraged, but no consequences on nestling survival or growth were found. A lower breeding density at low local availability of pasture may compensate for lack of good foraging habitat. It is suggested that recent changes in the agricultural landscape may have increased the mismatch between the availability of good foraging areas and nest-sites. This might have contributed to the recent population decline of the starling in northern Europe by affecting both foraging habitat quality and flight costs paid by parents during breeding.     

Two unnecessary powdery mildew resistance genes in a synthetic rye population are neutral on fitness

A synthetic winter rye population was produced with two race-specific powdery mildew resistance genes, one dominant (Rm1) and the other (rm2) recessive, each at a frequency of about 0.50. The population was advanced by open-pollination in an isolated plot under mildew-free conditions for eight years. Samples of generations Syn-0 through Syn-7 were inoculated in the laboratory with two mildew isolates, one avirulent to either resistance gene, the other virulent to Rm1 and avirulent to rm2, to discriminate resistant and susceptible phenotypes. From the proportions of resistant plants, frequencies of Rm1 and rm2 were calculated and the fitness of carriers of resistance alleles was estimated in relation to carriers of susceptibility alleles at the two loci using continuous models and linear regression analyses. Frequencies of the two resistance genes oscillated only weakly over the eight generations. Coefficients of selection against Rm1-and rm2rm2 genotypes were –0.04 and –0.02, respectively, and not significantly different from zero. Thus the two resistance genes were selectively neutral. It is concluded that pyramiding of major powdery mildew resistance genes in rye varieties should not reduce their yield potential in the absence of mildew.     

中国肉禽产业发展分析

近十几年以来中国肉禽产业发展迅速,目前已成为中国畜牧业的主要增长点.但加入世界贸易组织以后,随着中国逐步开放国内市场,在国际市场上肉禽产品的激烈竞争将随着国内市场的开放而导入国内,并由此对中国肉禽产业的发展产生一定的影响.试图在中国肉禽产业发展特点、中国各省区肉禽业发展水平和中国肉禽产品的比较优势方面进行分析和探讨.     

Production and economic return of shrimp aquaculture in coastal ponds of different sizes and with different management regimes

Coastal shrimp (Penaeus monodon) aquaculture in Bangladesh is mostly practiced in a special type of field/pond situated by the side of a river -- called a Gher -- that is used to cultivate rice in winter and shrimp in summer. Ghers of different sizes are managed in different ways. In order to understand the effects of Gher size and their corresponding management practices on the production and economic returns of shrimp farming, we conducted an on-farm study in three small (1–5 ha), three medium (6–10 ha) and three large (>10 ha) Ghers located in the coastal Southwest region of Bangladesh. The mean harvest weight of shrimp was similar in all Ghers, but survival rates were higher in the small (50%) and medium (37%) ones than in the large (18%) ones. The high mortality in the large units led to a production that was lower than one-half of that in the small Ghers (about 80 and 200 kg/ha, respectively). The total variable costs per unit area were similar in all Ghers, but the importance of different items varied with Gher size. In the small Ghers, there are relatively high investments on inputs and labor. This expenditure results in lower shrimp mortality and higher production, which in turn results in gross returns that are larger than the total costs -- hence, a positive and high net return. In large Ghers, the fixed costs are larger than in the small ones simply because of the size of the pond. Variable costs include higher investments in post-larvae and labor than in small Ghers, and lower inputs applied only at pond preparation. This results in higher shrimp mortality and lower production, which in turn results in gross returns that are smaller than the total costs -- hence, a negative or low net return. These findings have positive implications for the future policy formulation of coastal shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh.     

Soil organic carbon accumulation and carbon costs related to tillage, cropping systems and nitrogen fertilization in a subtropical Acrisol

Conservation management systems can improve soil organic matter stocks and contribute to atmospheric C mitigation. This study was carried out in a 18-year long-term experiment conducted on a subtropical Acrisol in Southern Brazil to assess the potential of tillage systems [conventional tillage (CT) and no-till (NT)], cropping systems [oat/maize (O/M), vetch/maize (V/M) and oat + vetch/maize + cowpea (OV/MC)] and N fertilization [0 kg N ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ (0 N) and 180 kg N ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ (180 N)] for mitigating atmospheric C. For that, the soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation and the C equivalent (CE) costs of the investigated management systems were taken into account in comparison to the CT O/M 0 N used as reference system. No-till is known to produce a less oxidative environment than CT and resulted in SOC accumulation, mainly in the 0–5 cm soil layer, at rates related to the addition of crop residues, which were increased by legume cover crops and N fertilization. Considering the reference treatment, the SOC accumulation rates in the 0–20 cm layer varied from 0.09 to 0.34 Mg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ in CT and from 0.19 to 0.65 Mg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ in NT. However, the SOC accumulation rates peaked during the first years (5th to 9th) after the adoption of the management practices and decreased exponentially over time, indicating that conservation soil management was a short-term strategy for atmospheric C mitigation. On the other hand, when the CE costs of tillage operations were taken into account, the benefits of NT to C mitigation compared to CT were enhanced. When CE costs related to N-based fertilizers were taken into account, the increases in SOC accumulation due to N did not necessarily improve atmospheric C mitigation, although this does not diminish the agricultural and economic importance of inorganic N fertilization.